Multi-family Building – Rue des Grottes

Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Year: 2011

With: Arch. Annelise Donati, Arch. Marco Franchini, Arch. Marco Aurelio Postacchini, Arch. Santo Curcio

The intervention affects three different streets in Geneva and has been dealt with a unitary way using the same colors, the same materials and the reference to the same shapes and geometries, both for the facades and the volumes. The apartment blocks are staggered halfway between those facing the Rue des Grottes and the ones on Rue des Amis. This made it possible to make the best use of the available heights and to avoid direct views of facing apartments. The house of cultures maintains its external walls and the floors of the existing part. The wooden part is emptied instead, the enclosure is kept, while the floors are repositioned to allow the creation of spaces useful for its social function. The existing roof has been removed to be replaced by a large room for special meeting events. This parallelepiped is detached from the existing building by a ribbon window above which there is a double skin of alveolar polycarbonate and expanded metal. The roof becomes a large outdoor terrace that can be used for different occasions.