Redevelopment of the district Praille - Acacias - Vernets

The gesture on a territorial scale

The redevelopment project for the neighborhoods of Praille – Vernets – Acacias offers a unique opportunity for the urban development of Geneva. The scale and magnitude of the site with its territorial connections linked to all national and international transport networks, both public and private, have the potential to offer Geneva a new image, a genuine front entrance with a resolutely contemporary expression. It also raises the problematic of the urban seam between a city center and its periphery, between the urban and the rural. The project falls within a very strong landscape framework and integrates into the territorial scale through the creation of a large park. Finally, it attempts to put in place the problematic of urban transportation at the heart of the project by expanding the route de Jeunes around the park which puts in place a fluid entrance hierarchy into the city and the connections to the neighborhood. The strategic poles of the project are organized around the CEVA stations and the tram network.

The context and the landscape project

The area under study has very strong natural characteristics which give it its identity. The Praille plain is bordered by the hills of Lancy and Bachet as well as by the river Arve, creating a setting that is reinforced by the numerous lines of trees. The creation of an urban park, the founding element of the project, links these different landscape identities by defining a formative space for the entire area. On a local level, a more precise reflection is then applied to the pedestrian route via alignments of trees, giving a transversal character to the site. This vegetal structure thus becomes the supporting element of the road network of the new neighborhoods and links the upper and lower parts of the site.

20'000 homes and a mix of uses

The juxtaposition of an industrial fabric and a high density of accommodations poses the problem of pollution inherent to the types of high frequency forms of transport that are vital in the former, but undesirable in the latter. The question arises of knowing if, whilst maintaining certain activities of an industrial nature, reversibility would be possible or desirable in order to place these 20'000 homes in more favorable context. The cantonal master plan for Geneva until 2015 considers the allocation of 400 hectares in a development area in Satigny for industrial activities within a perimeter close to Geneva’s international airport. This outlying area, in relation to the railway, would be well suited for relocation of the industrial activities located in La Praille. There is a possibility of relocating the marshalling area within the Arc Lémanique to Denges. For us, this premise reinforces the idea that the redistribution of the activities on a territorial level is necessary and essential in order to rethink the perimeter of the site in a wider context and to build a city within a city. More than merely a rigid image, this essential starting approach has led us to propose a process of development of the federated area around founding elements such as the park and its urban limits.