Renovating Le Lignon: The renewal of an iconic Swiss housing estate

This book documents the exemplary planning and implementation of renovation work led by Jaccaud + Associés in the Cité du Lignon, Vernier near Geneva between 2010 and 2024. The Cité, which was built between 1963 and 1971 by Georges Addor, Dominique Julliard, Jacques Bolliger and Louis Payot, is one of the largest housing estates in Switzerland.

This book documents the exemplary planning and implementation of renovation work led by Jaccaud + Associés in the Cité du Lignon, Vernier near Geneva between 2010 and 2024. The Cité, which was built between 1963 and 1971 by Georges Addor, Dominique Julliard, Jacques Bolliger and Louis Payot, is one of the largest housing estates in Switzerland and has been preservation-listed since 2009. The Cité’s renovation was the subject of numerous studies and developments that have gradually resulted in the establishment of a major building site since 2012, which continues to operate today. The measures have improved the façades’ thermal insulation, renovated the communal areas and circulation routes, adapted the buildings to fire-safety regulations and renewed the technical shafts. Renovation work on the building envelope was implemented according to three principles, as presented in the studies by the TSAM Labor­atory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Building work on the more than 1,000 apartments was carried out without interruptions to normal operations, thereby ensuring that residents were inconvenienced as little as possible during the measures. This book gives a voice to the main protagonists of this team task and is illustrated by two photographers, Leo Fabrizio and Paola Corsini, who documented the completed project and its building stages from their own perspectives.