For five semesters, our studio has been exploring new architectural practices adapted to the contemporary climate-adaptive city. In response to the challenges of climate change, shifting lifestyles, and the commons, we focus on the conservation and transformation of ordinary heritage, adapting existing buildings to the needs of a society in transition. The aim is to design hybrid places capable of accommodating new uses and inventing new spatial configurations.

Our work is located in the Praille Acacias Vernet (PAV) sector in Geneva, more specifically in the Grosselin neighbourhood. This is an industrial territory destined to become Geneva’s new urban centre, through a radical transformation that will lead to the disappearance of its industrial fabric and the forms of life associated with it.

Over the semesters, we have explored several buildings within this territory. We first transformed Blavignac Tower 10 into a “Grand Genève Social Club”, combining housing, productive spaces, and shared commons. We then worked on the industrial site at 12–20 rue Baylon, questioning the relationships between living and working, followed by the building at 2 rue Baylon, whose depth was reinterpreted as the foundation for a productive infrastructure and an alternative way of life. During the autumn semester of 2025, students transformed the Bosson Hall into a covered and open public space, a common resource both for its unique architecture and spatial qualities and for the future uses it could accommodate.

During the spring semester of 2026, the studio focused on a building located at 13 chemin de la Marbrerie, near Bosson Hall. Sold and scheduled for demolition, but with its building permit suspended at the time, the building was temporarily occupied by the Ressources Urbaines collective, which hosted artists and associations there. Its compactness, robustness, long-span post-and-beam structure, non-load-bearing façades, and generous ceiling heights made it a heritage asset with strong potential for transformation.

Building on these existing qualities, students imagined its conversion into a metropolitan building combining housing, workspaces, and commons, conceived as an inclusive infrastructure and a true “home for all of us.”

Students: Thalya Badibanga, Valentin Delavy, Bianca Eggmann, Emmanuelle Kossmann, Nicola Kovalenko, Isaure Monteleone, Alexandra Péguret, Helena Sarmiento, Léna Schürmann, Eva De Almeida Ruiz, Milena Dubugnon, Benjamin Dohollou, Ambre Gravina, Marie Mamou Blanché, Zoé Mettraux, Norah Pittet, Kateryna Sushynska, Jiwon Yuk