Quartier Coupe Gordon-Bennett

Short description

A new life. After more than half a century as the site of the construction company Zschokke, which became Implenia in 2006, a 35,000 m2 site in the heart of Vernier has undergone a rapid and spectacular transformation in just a few years.

The project

Combined intelligences. The realization of the buildings is entrusted to the first three winners of the competition for the PLQ. Despite the constraints inherent to each volume, the architects quickly agreed to guarantee an expressive coherence to the whole complex. The development is characterized by the presence of large balconies, whose stylized plant motifs run around the perimeter of the facades. These elements give the site a strong identity, softened by a clever chromatic concept of five tones combined in the facades of the different buildings. This common language does not imply any monotony, however, since each building has its typologies, the composition of its interior facades and the layout of its courtyard spaces freely determined by its designer. The landscaping of the entire complex also appears as one of the essential components of the project, in coherence with the treatment of the buildings. The pedestrian mall - the backbone of the site - as well as the public park and the secondary circulation spaces, thus display a perfectly controlled sobriety, where mineral and vegetated surfaces alternate. Behind the formal clarity of the buildings and the fluidity of the landscaping lies a very successful sustainable construction plan developed by the client himself. This concern includes parameters as varied as the recycling of materials from demolitions, energy performance, cost control, social diversity and biodiversity. All these indicators testify to the success of the "Gordon-Bennett Cup" operation carried out by protagonists who, from the outset, have given priority to joint reflection over individual architectural gestures.