After Data: Future Forests for Geneva

This studio will explore the histories and future possibilities for the forests of Geneva, Switzerland. Building on the findings of last spring’s research seminar “Cultivating Shade: Policy, Planning, Design, and Activism for Geneva’s Urban Forest,” the studio will explore Geneva’s forests at the urban, cantonal, and regional scales. The studio seeks to assist Geneva in realizing their “Geneva Urban Area Arborization Strategy” (SAG), which specifies the city’s goals for expanding its tree canopy from the current average of 23% to 30%, with no areas below 10%. This translates to an estimated 150,000 trees planted over the next 15 years. As stated in the SAG report, “…we now know that the tree is one of the key levers of the transformation toward greater sustainability…a means of action to provide answers to crucial challenges expressed on the scale of the city: improvement of the climate, environmental quality, support for biodiversity and resilience in the face of the effects of global warming.”

Beyond the technical and performative aspects of trees (what they “do” for the environment), the studio will focus on the cultural dimension of forests in a city that has operated for millennia as a cultural and political crossroads. Geneva is strategically located at the southwestern end of Lake Geneva, the largest alpine lake in Europe, where the Rhone River emerges to continue its trajectory through France toward the Mediterranean Sea. The city and its regional unit, the canton, lie on the Couvette Genevois, a geographical basin bound by the Jura Mountains and Alps. These enclose the canton in a quasi-enclave of rural and agricultural landscapes that contrast with its urban core.

However, this strong territorial identity of Geneva is belied by its bi-national and global reach. Of its 104 kilometer-long border, only four kilometers are shared with the neighboring Swiss canton of Vaud, and the remaining 100 kilometers with France. The city has grown into a cross-border metropolis, Greater Geneva, with bedroom communities for the city’s laborers on the French side characterized by socio-economic and environmental disparities. What roles will forests play in the future of Greater Geneva?

Geneva’s global reach is also an essential part of its identity. It is the European home of the United Nations, with several of its entities, such as the World Health Organization, based there. It hosts more than 40 international organizations and hundreds of NGO’s, the world’s epicenter for diplomacy and international cooperation. “Tree Diplomacy,” the planting of trees from many different geographical regions with a presence in Geneva, has a role in developing its urban tree canopy. How should we define tree diplomacy in these perilous times?

Finally, Geneva offers a range of canonical design projects that reassert forested landscapes’ cultural and experiential dimensions. Of note is Georges Descombes’s Voie Suisse. L’itineraire genevoise. De Morschach a Brunnen (1998) and the Renaturation of the River Aire (c.2010-15). We will also examine planning proposals for Greater Geneva. Max Piana, Visiting Lecturer in Plant Science and Forest Ecology, Eric Kramer of Reed Hilderbrand, and Slide Kelly, Design Critic in Landscape Architecture, will support the studio. We will travel to Geneva where there will be an exchange with landscape architecture students at HEPIA.
 

Note regarding the Fall 2025 GSD academic calendar: The first day of classes, Tuesday, September 2nd, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. Courses that meet only on Tuesdays will meet for the first time on September 9th. Courses meet regularly otherwise. Please refer to the GSD academic calendar for additional details.