MAISON DE LA PAIX
Project Manager and Owner >
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Project Management >
Philippe Burrin – Pierre Gilliot – Pierre Guth – Nicole Perret
Architect >
Eric Ott, Bureau IPAS, Neuchâtel
General Contractor
The first project, launched in 1994 by the canton of Geneva, aimed to construct several buildings around the Place des Nations in Geneva for the IUHEI, its library and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. The project was ultimately rejected in a public referendum in 1998. The Swiss Confederation, led by the Federal Department of Defence, developed a new proposal in the early 2000s to house the IUHEI and the three centres, identifying land between Chemin
Steiner SA
Rigot and the railway line, using the name “Maison de la paix” for
MINERGIE® Label
the first time. Due to financing difficulties, this second project was
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also abandoned.
Brief history
The third attempt was, however, successful. Under the guidance
The Maison de la paix is the culmination of several projects
of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs and Charles
launched over the last twenty years in response to concerns and
Kleiber, State Secretary for Education and Research, the project
objectives shared by Swiss federal and cantonal authorities:
was redefined to account for the planned merger of the IUHEI and
Switzerland’s commitment, laid down in a headquarters
IUED and the new institution’s need for space. Unlike previous
agreement with the World Trade Organization, to move the
projects, in which funding and execution were the responsibility of
Graduate Institute’s library, previously located in the basement
public authorities, it was jointly agreed that the new Institute would
of that organisation’s building
take responsibility, own the building and bear the financial risk of
The growing scarcity of classroom and office space for the
operating it. In return the Confederation, along with the canton
IUHEI and the IUED, the two institutes that eventually merged
of Geneva, offered a guarantee on rent payments from the three
in 2008 to form the Graduate Institute
centres in order to secure a bank loan and granted a construction
The need to house three centres dedicated to the civil
subsidy as part of their investment in higher education.
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promotion of peace, established between 1995 and 2000 with
All of these projects had the underlying objective to reinforce
the support of the Swiss Confederation: the Geneva Centre for
International Geneva and increase the Institute’s capacity and
Security Policy, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control
scope by enhancing synergies with other Confederation-supported
of Armed Forces, and the Geneva International Centre for
institutions.
Humanitarian Demining