Villa Conches

Located in the residential neighbourhood of Conches, in the municipality of Chêne-Bougeries, east of the city of Geneva and not far from the French border, the villa is situated in a wooded area facing south with an unobstructed view of the Salève, the iconic mountain of the Geneva region.


The plot of approximately 2,400 m², the result of the division of a large property, was detached from the historic garden of the neighbouring house located to the north of the land. Located in zone 5 (villas) of the Geneva building regulations, the plot is subject to an easement limiting the height of the project to 5 metres, to the benefit of the neighbouring house, which thus preserves its view of the landscape.
It is interesting to note that the Conches neighbourhood still has a significant number of small areas that are still registered as forests and are protected from clearing. The location and shape of the house are partly defined by the distances that must be maintained from one of these wooded areas.

The family villa is designed for a family with three children. It has five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, a living room, a kitchen-dining room, and an office-library area.

As the land is sloped and accessed from the top of the plot, the house is revealed through its fifth façade, the green roof. The entrance level to the villa, six metres below the plot entrance, is reached via a series of ramps, stairs and outdoor spaces leading to the entrance patio, the final stage of this approach sequence.

Height restrictions limit the construction of the villa to a single level, resulting in a large footprint. This constraint, combined with the constraints of distances to the boundaries, is the main challenge of the project and explains the choice of layout.

The layout, which unfolds in a ‘C’ shape around the entrance patio in a non-orthogonal geometry, allows the volume to be integrated into the terrain. The circulation serving the different spaces is developed on the rear façade surrounding the entrance patio. The parents' wing, comprising the master bedroom and study, and the children's wing with its three bedrooms, are distributed from the entrance and central area. The latter is a fluid, continuous space, with the free-form bathroom linking the dining room-kitchen and living room areas.

The basement forms the base of the house. It is partially open due to the slope of the land, which has made it possible to accommodate, in addition to a utility room, a laundry room and a wine cellar, two additional bedrooms with their own bathrooms.

The structural concept and the choice of façade materials contribute to the dynamic expression of the house, orienting the layout between a more mineral and closed rear and a front that opens up and projects towards the view and the light.
The exposed concrete gives the rear of the house a monolithic and closed appearance and, thanks to its mechanical characteristics, also allows for the creation of a structural cantilever that frees the south façade from any supports and allows the common areas to open generously towards the right orientation and views.

Between closure and openness, weight and lightness, the choice of materials and the expression of the façades contribute to reinforcing the coherence of the overall design, with exposed concrete expressing the mass and structural supports and wood combined with large bay windows applied to the non-load-bearing parts of the envelope.