Geneva Main Station

A doubling of passenger numbers is expected at Geneva’s main station, Cornavin—equivalent to 100’000 travelers per day. The new underground station to the north of the existing terminal will fundamentally transform both the “Cornavin Station System” and its surrounding urban environment.

The focus of the project lies in defining key urban planning principles for the development of the station area. The core idea is to understand the station as an interface between the “representative, international Geneva” to the south and the “vibrant, local Geneva” in the Les Grottes neighborhood to the north. The existing contrasts are seen as a quality to be enhanced. Therefore, no major real estate development is proposed on the north side of the station. At the same time, the northern side—with the new underground station—becomes the new focal point of the station, subject to increased demands for use and mobility (e.g., convenience shopping, travel services, station access, pedestrian flows, and bicycle/moped parking).

Three small, spatially defining head buildings (a mix of existing and new structures) form two well-proportioned neighborhood squares that serve as transitions between the station and the neighborhood. These squares and buildings absorb much of the functional pressure generated by the underground station (e.g., bike station, convenience retail), helping to prevent unwanted socio-economic changes within the neighborhood itself. At the same time, they enable new, small-scale neighborhood connections that are currently missing—particularly improving connectivity with Parc des Cropettes.

An important aspect of the head buildings and neighborhood squares is the emphasis on key cross-connections between the different sides of the station. This creates a coherent, logical, and compact network of pedestrian routes. Simplicity supports wayfinding and orientation throughout the station area and helps users locate the various station entrances. For example, extending the central station passage on the south side re-establishes the visual axis toward Mont Blanc. This creates a logical and highly frequented pedestrian route linking Les Grottes, the station, the lake, and the city center.

The Place de Cornavin—the station square—is opened up on a large scale and transformed into an attractive, representative urban plaza for pedestrians. Tram and bus stops are positioned along the edges of the square, keeping the central area as open as possible and enabling interaction between the ground-floor uses and the concentrated pedestrian flows at the transit stops. The area around the cathedral, as a green space, becomes an integral part of the square while maintaining its own character as a calm meeting point and “slow zone” of the station area.