Category: ARCHIVE

La Fontenette, in Carouge, hosted since the 1950s ten buildings with 120 apartments. Despite obvious signs of decay, this complex still has interesting features, thanks to the many green areas and to the presence of beautiful trees.

The project reinterprets the former construction’s planning principles, which can be described as living in a park. Seven new compact buildings are freely disposed in-between the existing trees, which are preserved. They define quality outdoor spaces, providing residents great visual relationships with both buildings and landscape.

The project is part of the Localized Area Plan (LAP) route de la Chapelle, which is itself part of the master plan La Chapelle-les-Sciers. These plans establish the principles for lay-out, seting-up and size of buildings.

In view of a collective appropriation of the exterior space the ground floors are slightly raised with respect to the adjacent land. Compliance with a global Minimum Energy Concept will be achieved through different systems integrated in the project such as solar panels on the roof and an efficient thermal insulation.

This project is the result of an architectural competition organized by a communal foundation. These two ecologically high-performing buildings are part of the new district of Cressy, on the outskirts of Geneva, which has developed substantially from a restrictive urbanization policy.

Both buildings, allowing space for 24 apartments, are connected by a partially underground parking lot, thereby benefiting from natural lighting.

The project makes a mediation between two urban conditions: the urban fabric of rue Rousseau and its significant buildings, particularly the school built by P. Barras and A. Camoletti and the Mont Blanc / Cendrier Centre built by MJ Saugey.

These two constructions are reconciled with the new building that absorbs several spatial and volumetric elements, the base and the faceted forms of the Saugey building and the continuity of the street and the tripartite ordering of of the schools façade. In this way, like a puzzle made up of different parts carefully assembled, a new building emerges, specific to its context and yet strangely universal in character.

The building is dressed in tinted sheet zinc with thermo lacquered aluminum coverings. It has received the “label Minergie ©”. Loggias are included in the volume to assure the best habitability and make them a real additional room to each flat.