Vintage Switzerland – Geneva: city and modern housing developments in 1978

LSE/King’s Geography field-trip to France & Switzerland April 1978 part 2 of 4

Urban & Social Geography: A day out in Geneva and a tour of a giant housing estate very much of the Le Corbusier school of architecture.

Swiss-born architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret – better known as Le Corbusier – was an architect and urban planner on a large scale. I had no way of knowing in 1978 that by 1982 I would be living on, in my opinion, one of the best examples of an estate built – approximately at least – according to his ideas. Brandon Estate in south London created a great deal of open space with greenery and trees that simply did not exist before it was built. The open space was only possible because the same number of people that had previously been housed in two-storey dwellings were now housed in tower blocks.

Arguments continue to rage about low-rise vs. high-rise housing, but my personal belief is that there is room for both, but only if done right. Greedy developers are, well, greedy and their primary interest is in profit and not people or landscape. After Brandon many more tower blocks were built that did not comply with the Corbusian ideals in that they crammed them all in together leaving as little open space as they could get away with. Nowhere for children to play or for older people to sit out to enjoy the trees and open parkland.

Geneva itself is a very pleasant city built at the western end of Lac Leman – or Lake Geneva if you prefer. On entering the city and buying a coffee I became immediately aware of just how expensive it was (still is!) to be a tourist in Switzerland. At the time the French had francs and the Swiss had Swiss francs. A coffee was about 6f in Geneva. It was also about 6f just a few miles away at Thonon-les-Bains in France. So, what is wrong with that I hear you ask? Well, the exchange rate at the time meant that every Swiss franc was the equivalent of three French francs, so that the coffee in Geneva was 18f!!! That is a BIG difference.

We were lucky enough to attend a lecture at the university in Geneva given by their Head of Geography. A very good overview of the character and history of the Swiss by one of their leading academics. His talk was amusing in places, especially when he was being disparaging, in a playful and inoffensive manner, about certain aspects of the Swiss character. The precision of Swiss timing for example, and how you might arrange to meet a friend in a café at 3:17 in the afternoon. Not ‘about a quarter past three’ as we might say in London, but 3:17. Of course, this seemed amusing to us but actually was this not a good thing? The trains certainly ran on time. Precision, regularity, punctuality and doing things by numbers seemed key aspects of Swiss life. That is a generalisation of course, and such generalisations are not usually helpful, but it was interesting to hear how honest this Geography professor was about his own country and people. He was a man you could trust to give an unbiased account based on known facts rather than supposition or prejudice.

I very much enjoyed my time in Geneva and would like to think that I might have the opportunity to visit once again. 2028 will be the 50th anniversary of my first visit; I suppose it’s possible. In looking through street view on Apple Maps I can see that some of the buildings photographed remain in existence and, to my surprise, the pub/eatery Taverne de la Madeleine still exists in 2025! Now that is a place I absolutely MUST stop off at.