New Student Residence designed by Kengo Kuma

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The Institute is undertaking the construction of a student residence that will allow it to add 700 beds to the existing 250-capacity Edgar and Danièle de Picciotto Student House. In doing so, it is helping to create a new neighbourhood at the top of route de Ferney which will include the headquarters of Médecins sans frontières and housing for international civil servants.

The land of the residence, with an area of 10,000 square metres, enjoys beautiful views towards Lake Geneva and Mont-Blanc. Its construction has been made possible thanks to the extremely generous support of a private foundation in Geneva, who has contributed not just to the land, on which the Institute will have a 99-year free surface right, but also to the necessary funding to obtain bank financing.

The realisation of the new residence is particularly important for the Institute as it marks the completion of Campus de la paix, which will run from Park Mon-Repos to the heights of Grand-Saconnex, giving the Institute an infrastructure that very few academic institutions can enjoy. Above all, it will enable the Institute to offer accommodation to all its students, thus attracting talented young people from all over the world. This in turn will facilitate the recruitment of excellent professors, which will further enhance the density and quality of the education sector in the dynamic Lake Geneva region.

This project is part of the Institute’s strategy to develop real estate assets whose revenues will complement public subsidies and will provide the means to continue growing.

The Architectural Project


After an architectural competition in which 30 offices from around the world were invited to participate, the jury selected Kengo Kuma’s project on account of its strength, sobriety and elegance. It presents a highly original concept for a residence, encouraging movement, meetings and exchange between residents via a walkway that follows the facade around an inner courtyard formed by two buildings connected by a footbridge.

Kengo Kuma’s project also features freestanding roofs, interesting use of open and accessible spaces and detailed consideration of solar protection and energy consumption.

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Kengo Kuma

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With bases in Tokyo and Paris, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Architecture, Kengo Kuma has gained a worldwide reputation for projects which reinterpret Japanese tradition and which notably integrate nature into the city. In Europe, he designed the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Aix-en-Provence and the EPFL “Under One Roof” building. He was selected to build the main stadium of the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020.