Georges Descombes, Geneva-born (1939) “architect of landscape,” approaches sites as palimpsests layered with memory, absence, and possibility. His projects—from Parc de Lancy to the renaturing of the River Aire—refuse nostalgia, insisting instead on landscapes that reveal traces of the past while arousing the intensities of the present. Through teaching, experiments, and strong gestures in the public realm, Descombes pursues what he calls an “urbanism of revelation,” raising the temperature of the everyday. Descombes is a Swiss “architect of landscape,” whose work bridges architecture, pedagogy, and practice. After formative years with Pier Luigi Nervi and Marc-Joseph Saugey, and a period in London, he returned to Geneva in 1975 to teach and founded the Centre de Réalisation Expérimentale at the École d’Architecture de Genève, later holding visiting professorships at Harvard and the University of Virginia. His projects—such as Parc de Lancy, the Swiss Path at Lake Lucerne, and the Bijlmer Monument—treat landscapes as palimpsests, layering visible and invisible traces of history to shape present and future meanings. From urban interventions in Lyon, Antwerp, and Brussels to his use of participatory processes, Descombes emphasized strong gestures and architecture as an art of experience. His renaturation of the River Aire (2000–2015) stands as a manifesto project, confronting nature’s violence and artifice while reflecting on humanity’s role in the Anthropocene.
Laura Cipriani is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at Delft University of Technology and a founder of Superlandscape, a landscape and urban design firm. She holds a Ph.D. in Landscape Urbanism from IUAV, a master’s degree in landscape and urban issues from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a master’s in Architecture from IUAV. […]
On October 13th, LILA – Landezine International Landscape Award 2018 winners and jury members met at HafenCity University at the 4th Landezine LIVE. You can find the lectures and all our past events documented in video at landezine.com/live/ Landezine thanks to all the speakers, HafenCity University for a very successful collaboration, all visitors that decided […]
Georges Descombes is a renowned Swiss architect and landscape architect. At the third Landezine LIVE event, titled ‘Read/Write Landscape’ he presented his poetic project Renaturalisation of River l’Aire near Geneva that offers a practical example of how to deepen our thinking about the environment and our role in changing it. To a question “What is […]
The third event of the Landezine LIVE lecture series, titled ‘Read/Write Landscape’ will explore the architecture of imaginative and physical landscapes with the help from renowned international experts; Georges Descombes (Geneva) – landscape architect, Klaske Havik (Amsterdam) – architect – editor – professor, Pavel Gantar (Ljubljana) – urban sociologist and Chris Eckman (Ljubljana – Seattle) […]
Travelling? See projects nearby!
Get Landezine’s Weekly Newsletter and keep in touch!
Subscribe and receive news, articles, opportunities, projects and profiles from the community, once per week! Subscribe
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
