Eco district La Jonction

Site and urban layout

Situated in the Jonction district in the heart of the city of Geneva, the old Industrial Services site was a restricted area until it was opened to the public, thanks to the cultural activities conducted by the ARTAMIS association (theater, exhibitions, bars, ateliers).

To perpetuate the opening, the project of the new locale calls for an open urban character – open to permit pedestrians to cross the site – open also toward the Kings’ Cemetery park, one of the major points of the site.

The project calls for a compact package, concentrated on three buildings. That solution avoids expropriating and giving up the structure in favor of the quality of the outer spaces.

Three buildings for three different builders. Being identical in size, the separate lots guarantee autonomy in their planning and subsequent construction.

Each entity, with one hundred dwellings, is composed of two building wings defined by large external common areas (walkways, landings and platforms), dedicated to the inhabitants.

Although consisting of three entities, the new structures will form an entity in the image of large, collective urban apartment blocks. The diversity is created by its inhabitants, by the program mixture and by the social ties established within the district.

The proposed layout differences respond to the social mixture. The dwellings (2 to 8 rooms) range from studio to simplex and duplex apartments, extending north/south or east/west depending on the position of the beams. The kitchen, facing the exterior common areas, serves as a buffer between the public and the private space but will allow for room for tables and chairs, providing added living space.

Eco Quartier and durable development

The concept of durable development applies to the three objects: economical, social and environmental. The project responds to the economic character by its compactness while also employing a simple and repetitive construction system. From the social point of view, the plan is to provide multiple activities (dwellings, stores, studies, school etc). The different layout as well as the outside areas permit strengthening relationships between the inhabitants.

From the environmental perspective, the life cycle of the buildings has been considered (construction, use, deconstruction) by giving preference to materials with a low impact on the environment and offering cost-effective construction (prefabrication). The complex must have a positive energy balance, a point of particular concern. The buildings will benefit from a very good thermal skin (Minergie P) and will need little energy. The system is optimized to satisfy that requirement to the maximum by recovering waste from the building: The heat needed for low-temperature heating comes from an on-site transformer, recovery of the heat from used water suffices to produce all of the hot water for sanitary purposes, and rain water will be collected for the sanitary plumbing and for outside watering. Finally, on-site energy generation will provide the remainder of what is needed: Photovoltaic panels on the roofs will drive different heat pumps and supply the complex with electricity.