The editorial
The Risk Bet of Geneva, which rises
Our canton has decided to grow in height. Development that raises environmental and heritage concerns. The other French -speaking cantons, for their part, put the sweet pedal.
Geneva, August 6, 2025. View from Lancy (La Vendée) of the Praille-Acacias-Vernets district. With the new Pictet tower and the Pont-Rouge and the Star sites. On the left in the photo, the Tower of Vernets.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia
Geneva provides for the construction of more than 30 laps, up to 170 meters, as part of the Praille-Acacias-Vernets project. This development responds to the constant economic growth of the canton and the annual influx of 5000 foreign workers, which exacerbates the shortage of housing.
In this context, such buildings seem welcome to maximize the number of housing and offices, while limiting the grip on the ground and protecting the agricultural area. This is the approach to “build the city in town”, on which the owner of Geneva development, Antonio Hodgers, has focused its policy.
Historically, unlike German -speaking Switzerland and its two flip flops in the Roche group in Basel (178 and 205 meters, Helvetic Record), Geneva was gradually sucking to gain height.
While waiting for the end of the lake to catch up and that the 90 meters of the large Lignon tower are soon exceeded, the other French -speaking cantons, for their part, put the sweet pedal. Symbols of architecture in its omnipotence, the skyscrapers have lost their superb. In view of environmental and heritage issues, times should be sobriety, with more open spaces, on a human scale.
In Western metropolises, the boom in towers has coincided with periods of economic growth. Our canton continues to excel in the matter. But with Trump taxes and the disturbing crisis that strikes international Geneva, it might not last. The bet to gain height is therefore risky.
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