The Squares of Montchoisy. Notes for a History of the Open Form in Geneva

This paper deals with the ambivalent character of the neighborhood «Squares Montchoisy» built in Geneva between 1929 and 1957. According to visual representations (photographs and drawings) disseminated by the architect Maurice Braillard, the project embodies two opposing images of the city: the metropolis and the city-in-a-park. Is this simply an unresolved tension arising from the formal and architectural choices that define the project? Or are there elements to suggest that this duality was a deliberate strategy on the part of Braillard, in response to the long-term nature of the project and the impossibility of knowing whether the city would evolve into a stone-lined metropolis (where the square would be a device to protect the dwellings) or its opposite, a city-in-a-park (where the green square represents the interlacing of buildings and nature).