AMENAGEMENT DE LA RADE DE LA VILLE DE GENEVE

ADAGIO/VIVACE express a new iconography for the « Rade », evoking and reinterpreting the narrative richness visible in the images portraying the banks before the late XIX century and XX century restructuring.
A new rich range of situations is grounded in a dialectic relationship between the ground of the city – which is the place marked by continuity and regularity – and the water plane, a surface endlessly surrendering to the metamorphosis of ephemeral events.
ADAGIO and VIVACE are two different spatial configurations while they also are two different ways to live the space of the roadstead, according to a redefined topography.
ADAGIO is the first movement: a unitary space, redefining the bank on the upper level of the city, in continuity with the built fabric. It is marked by a homogeneous surface – a monochromatic and mineral band of a constant width of 42m, unrolling all along the roadstead, planted with a regular system of four tree rows. Adagio, is a contemporary boulevard, unifying with just one single strong design choice the space of the “Rade”.
It reinterprets the XIX century banks restructuring as an “absolute” space, an ideal tribute to the tradition of rationalist urbanism of Enlightenment origin.
VIVACE, the second movement: it is a wooden deck, laying at a lower level, in constant contact with the water. It twists to accommodate diverse programs and activities, re-designing the bank profile. Vivace is the where the bank metamorphosis is always on display: festivals, markets, events, and a daily flaneurie configure an ever changing landscape – in time and space – constantly enabling different urban narratives to emerge. Vivace is a ludic infrastructure, flexible in its use, while being marked by a range of thematic spots.
ADAGIO e VIVACE as a unique system configure the “Rade” as a complex urban element where the diverse rhythms of the city are embodied: while Adagio, immediately recalls the permanence of the bank existence in the “long durée”, Vivace, stresses the need for a more active use of the Rade, more soft and reversible which will be subject to the approval of time.