RIVER AIRE

Geneva, Switzerland
Atelier Descombes

As a landlocked country with limited land for development due to the footprint of the Alps within the country, Switzerland has developed strict protocols to maximize land use, and maintains significant federal and canton level budgets for landscape management. Swiss farmers enjoy significant subsidies and government assistance to preserve farmland in floodplains, where rivers were channelized in the nineteenth century to minimize flooding and the destruction of cropland. In 2001, Geneva sponsored a competition to return the River Aire to its original shape by removing the channelization. Georges Descombes instead proposed that the canal should be enlarged to include a large space for the river to meander and flow, thus turning the canal into a reference line for the river. This space was dug with a diamond pattern that creates a complex series of channels for river flow, which would accept the flow of the river, while eroding and creating new patterns over time. The project explores the paradox of a formal design whose rigidity produces diverse outcomes with sediment and gravel flow that have erased the original pattern. The project sought to balance the ecological intentions of the competition, with the cultural heritage behind the canal channelization projects, which were undertaken by generations of farmers. In addition to the canal and the river garden, the project also created ecological corridors bordering the river as landscape corridors to link habitat while supporting multiple land uses in keeping with the intense land management that characterizes Switzerland. These spaces create different paths and smaller gardens for visitors.

2002 - ongoing
124 acres
1227 feet above sea level

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