The magazines The Monitor et AMC presented their annual architecture prize, the Équerre d’argent, on November 18. This year, the jury chaired by architect and town planner Iwona Buczkowska deliberated in favor of the project to rehabilitate the upper station of the Salève cable car in Monnetier-Mornex, in Haute-Savoie. The work of the Devaux & Devaux Architectures (DDA) agency thus won this veritable César for architecture, carried out on behalf of the local cross-border cooperation group for the operation of the Salève cable car.
Rehabilitate a nearly century-old monument
We reach the upper station of the cable car located on Mont Salève after a climb of 660 meters in altitude. A superb view of Geneva and Lake Geneva awaits both experienced hikers and occasional walkers.
The original building, built by Maurice Braillard, dates from 1932. © Manuel Bougot, dda architects
The jury is full of praise for this rehabilitation, devoting “admirable work, of great difficulty”: “we remain amazed by the power of the achievement and the quality of the project management which made such a result “. A work all the more delicate as the building in question, built in 1932 by the Swiss architect Maurice Braillard, has been included in the list of historic monuments since 2018. The site had, however, never really been completed, while Restoration work carried out in the 1980s was accused of having made the whole complex look ugly.
In its choice, the jury was sensitive to the question of service provided to the public. The work of Claudia and David Devaux allows cable car users to enjoy in different ways the splendid view offered to their eyes over the Swiss landscape below, through new infrastructures: a restaurant, a terrace and a panoramic esplanade to which There is also a climbing wall, hiking and paragliding departure points. Particular attention was also paid to the insertion of the work into its environment, a Natura 2000 protected area. “The infrastructure disappears into the landscape which it magnifies, which is also a feat”, praises the jury which also said a forest should be replanted on the site around the building.
Awards across the country
Among the other awarded projects, the rehabilitation of a primary school in Lompret (North) by Alt174. © Nicolas da Silva Lucas
If the Main Prize of this Silver Square was awarded to Devaux architects, six other nominees were able to receive awards depending on their category. Among the other projects present in the winners of this 2024 edition, the First Work prize awarded to the Alt174 architecture agency for the renovation of the Simone-Veil primary school in Lompret in the North: an achievement which was able to “transcend the initial order” for a simple thermal renovation, imitating the heritage of the town through the use of local construction materials and the color red. The “Habitat” category was won by the Tolila + Galiland agency, for a building of 76 social housing units and an association premises built in brick and wood in Bagneux.
New era at the Salève cable car – Episode 7