Campus Pictet de Rochemont

The new building will play a pivotal role in the future Pictet de Rochemont Campus. Permission to build was given by the relevant authorities in February 2022 (press release). Apart from symbolising both our long-term vision and a strong attachment to Geneva, where we have had our roots since 1805, the building will foster collaboration and innovation. Equipped with the most advanced technology, it will also serve as a blueprint for environmental integration in an urban environment.

Water, air, light and greenery are the core elements of the winning project, “Feng Shui” (“well-being”).

The new building will provide spaces that will ensure Pictet employees, clients and visitors constantly remain in contact with nature, bringing them calm, strength, peace and vitality.

With 23 floors, a panoramic view from the staff restaurant terrace and the omnipresence of nature: the notion of “well-being” will be at the heart of what the building stands for. It will provide its users with a stimulating and human working environment that fosters open mindedness, transparency and cooperation.

The Campus Pictet de Rochemont will be an environmental reference in its construction concept, energy consumption and accessibility, with a strong emphasis on car-free living. At his heart, green spaces will be created, with a public park and a tree-lined perimeter, as well as the daylighting of the Drize river. Approximately 10,300m2 of the campus will be used for the construction of around 100 high-quality apartments. 

We are committed to minimising the environmental impact at every stage of Campus Pictet de Rochemont construction project. We have therefore implemented an innovative solution to dispose of the soil from the construction site. By transporting the 80,000 m3 of soil - enough to fill 35 Olympic swimming pools or more than 9,000 lorries - by rail instead of by road, we have halved the carbon footprint per tonne of material. After it is removed by train, the soil from the site is unloaded into the lake – an increasingly common disposal method that poses no danger to the lake’s ecosystem. This solution was made possible thanks to the outstanding cooperation with the different stakeholders we worked with for this key step of the project..

The Acacias district takes its name from a tree that is very common in the neighbourhood, but also from a hamlet that once stood there. The predominantly agricultural suburb of Acacias — attached to Geneva in 1816 — became industrialised in the 19th century. In 1935, major railway infrastructure work was undertaken, which involved burying the river Drize under the Route des Jeunes (Road of the Young), completed in 1942 and named after the 800 young people “more eager for action than words”, who volunteered to build the road while their elders were in the army.

The agricultural district of Acacias, where Pictet is headquartered today, became industrialized in the first half of the 20th century. A number of factories and plants were located here, including the Laiteries Réunies in 1913, the British American Tobacco factory in 1939 and the Motosacoche factory in 1905, whose legendary machines travelled the roads of the world for almost half a century. Anecdotally, the Motosacoche workshop was located at Route des Acacias 48, which today houses several hundred Pictet employees.