Cedar Housing

Genève, Switzerland

Building front with cedar and entrance courtyard.

Photo © Julien Lanoo

Building front with cedar and entrance courtyard.

Photo © Julien Lanoo

Building front, volumes and cladding details.

Photo © Julien Lanoo

Building front and cladding details.

Photo © Julien Lanoo

Backyard facade and volumes' offset.

Photo © Julien Lanoo

Building front with cedar at night.

Photo © Julien Lanoo

Apartment Buildings

Architects: FdMP architectes

Location: Chemin de l'Etang 5-5G, 1219 Châtelaine, 1219 Genève, Switzerland
Year: 2019
Construction management: architech sa

Cedar Housing is like a treehouse inside the city. The project finds strength in its ability to embrace opposites: remote and central, natural and urban, individual and collective, private and shared, dense and quiet, minimal and comfortable. The housing consists of six triplexes lined up, with duplexes on each end. Strong from its context, it follows the circular shape of the site's centenary-old cedar. Its tiered form, dents and offsets allow for various social experiences and dialogue between urban densities. Variations in the cladding modify the perception of scale, revealing the story of an imaginary escape in the woods.