Works started on urban agriculture park near Geneva, Switzerland.

In June, the grading and path works started on one of Europe’s first designated urban agriculture parks in Bernex-Confignon, near the Swiss city of Geneva. Swiss practice Verzone Woods Architectes are leading the project who won its public competition in 2013.

The Parc Agro-Urbain Bernex et Confignon in Geneva’s metropolitan region reveals the image of a new park linking the Rhône and Aire regions, opening onto the Salève and the Jura. Located in the west of the canton of Geneva, Bernex is intended to become a regional centre, welcoming new inhabitants, jobs and public facilities. Close to the countryside, and linked to the heart of the city by a tramway, sustainable housing will be built. The new park is part of a strategy to bring city and countryside closer together. As such, it can be seen as an example of a productive urban landscape situated at the edge of on urban centre.

Verzone Woods Architects designed an urban agricultural park in which a variety of different agricultural forms of cultivation are arranged in such a way that spatial sequences and visual experiences are created. The park is a place of exchange and valorisation of local and regional agricultural products organised around differentiated spaces, mainly dedicated to leisure and relaxation activities, market gardening and arboriculture. It tends to reconcile urban leisure and agricultural activity. The time dimension of sowing, growing and harvesting and the interaction between agricultural production and public activities play an important role. By anticipating potential conflicts of use, the park facilitates dialogue, mutual understanding and solidarity between two sometimes divergent worlds. With its fields, a farm and a public square, the project meets the needs of both, the population and agriculture.

Bohn & Viljoen collaborate with Verzone Woods Architectes since many years on design research projects around urban agriculture and productive urban landscapes.

For more information on the project see the local council’s website.

For information on Verzone Woods Architectes see here.

Image: Building work at the future Parc Agro-Urbain in Bernex in June 2020 (source: Verzone Woods Architectes 2020)