HEAD – Genève X Fondation Clarté

Studio led by Valentin Dubois and Bertrand Van Dorp

The "Réanime Workshop" aims to give birth within heritage spaces intended for the Geneva public to the spatial and programmatic beginnings of future places. The former Darshana restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Clarté building in Geneva, designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in 1932, was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 and has been unoccupied for several years. This space, originally composed of shops, cellars, and garages, has undergone various uses throughout its history. It will be activated through micro-interventions that will highlight the modern heritage of the building.

For this semester project, the students of the Interior Architecture department at HEAD – Geneva use the existing elements on the ground floor of the Clarté building as the material for creation. Their surgical and reversible interventions serve as the beginnings of a future cultural space, and the care they put into it enhances the perception of this future cultural object.

This methodology places the object at the center of its concerns, aiming to restore the vital functions of the project. The revitalization of the space is carried out in four stages. This strategy aims to intervene step by step in identified and precise areas: facade, surface, volume, and support.