Garage des Nations

The arrangement of volumes in this small building is elegant as it is simple: the main block is surmounted by a smaller block, their rectangularity contrasting with the rounded end of the roof slab that projects – above the one and beneath the other – towards the Place des Nations, seeming to rest on a fragile rotunda of glass with its fine glazing bars.

The motor car being relatively rare in the Geneva of the Thirties, the service station represented a new programme little standardised by experience. Characteristic of the work of the period, this small-scale construction is an example of an architecture of everyday life that has enjoyed no special attention and of which but little has thus survived. The historian’s eye will, however, note that this building is an example of  “engineer’s architecture”, a happy conjunction of form and technology. It is a landmark in the history of the motor car in Geneva.

Change of context, change of use

In 1987 a competition was organised by the Fondation des Immeubles pour les Organisations Internationales (FIPOI – the Building Foundation for International Organisations) for the design of a headquarters for the UNHCR, to be built on a site immediately behind the garage. The winning project retained the service-station building, which by then belonged to Canton and was in theory to remain independent of the planned construction. The architects of the imposing headquarters nonetheless proposed substantial changes to the little building that occupied a symbolic position in front of it, on the Place des Nations, in order to adapt it to their own design. Formally speaking, they wanted to remove the upper floor, opening up an axial perspective onto the UNHCR HQ, while the rest was to be retained as an information and exhibition centre attached to the latter. When permission was applied for to carry out these works, and more particularly the demolition of the first floor block, the FBA objected to the plans and produced an information pack on the building that was widely circulated among interested parties. Thanks to the pressure thus applied, the FBA was able to exert some limited influence on the changes to be made, helping to ensure that the building did not entirely lose its character when it was converted in 1995 for use as an information and exhibition centre for the UNHCR, whose headquarters stands behind it.

Documentation available

Reduced copies of the original plans and drawings can be consulted at the Foundation, as can an information file including photographs by Boissonnas, articles etc. The FBA also maintains a file documenting the conversion of the building to its present use.