In Brief
FORCE MOTRICE is an innovative project to transform the Rhône into the backbone of the city.
From the Mont-Blanc Bridge to the Pointe de la Jonction, the Rhône asserts itself as the structuring backbone of the city center.
Its banks are redesigned as a continuous public space dedicated to soft mobility, outdoor activities, and exchange, strengthening the coherence and appeal of the heart of Geneva.
FORCE MOTRICE is an initiative that aims to:
- Create a continuous, harmonious promenade between the Mont-Blanc Bridge and the Jonction Bridge.
- Reconnect the city, its river, and its residents.
- Transform landmark buildings into cultural, social, and economic public spaces accessible to all.
- Strengthen Geneva’s cultural and economic vitality.
The powerful Rhône, the majestic Lake Geneva: these elements shape the city and its people, structuring its urban and social landscape. They are not merely natural features, but true living spaces woven into everyday life. The riverbanks, animated by craft, commercial, and recreational activities, form dynamic interfaces between the city and the water.
The quays and bridges are places of life, exchange, and popular celebration, fostering a direct and spontaneous relationship with these aquatic environments. Water, ever-present, is not just a backdrop: it is a space of freedom, a common good that we touch, cross, and fully inhabit.
The evolution of urbanization and the artificialization of the banks have gradually loosened this relationship. The channeling of the Rhône, the privatization of certain access points, and the over-mineralization of the quays have turned water into a contemplative landscape feature rather than a living public space.
The contemporary challenge of redesigning the riverbanks and reclaiming aquatic environments for residents opens the way to a new approach. Today, it is about rethinking the design of the banks to restore an active dialogue between the city and its lake and river setting, fostering ecological continuities and accessible spaces where water once again becomes a structuring element of the urban and social landscape.
Alignment with
Geneva’s priorities
The project responds to several
strategic priorities:
- Promoting social cohesion: creating a meeting and exchange space for all audiences.
- Enhancing the cultural offer: providing a place for a diverse and inclusive cultural experience.
- Ecological transition: reconnecting citizens with their natural environment while promoting the sustainable use of resources.
- Heritage enhancement: preserving and reinventing a landmark building.
Cultural references
Many examples of heritage sites transformed into spaces of democratic opportunity exist in Switzerland and internationally.
These places are imagined as unprogrammed, open spaces for many possible uses, so that buildings create new ways of sharing and engaging with people over time.
This embodies new ways of doing things—inspiring and innovative, close to the public and the spaces they inhabit.
Experimentation reinvents places that might seem fixed by carrying pioneering initiatives and new ways of thinking about and organizing space.
