La Maison de la paix rassemblera les collaborateurs de l’Institut et des activités d’enseignement et de recherche aujourd’hui dispersés sur plusieurs sites. Elle a également vocation à accueillir des étudiants, des chercheurs et des visiteurs du monde entier. La présence d’œuvres d’art contemporain augmentera l’attrait que lui vaudra sa qualité architecturale et manifestera son ambition d’être un haut lieu de la vie intellectuelle et culturelle internationale.

Grâce aux conseils de Loa Haagen Pictet, historienne d’art et curatrice, un jury composé d’experts de haut niveau a été constitué. Après examen du projet architectural, il établira une liste d’artistes à qui des oeuvres seront commissionnées. Le Conseil de fondation de l’Institut a approuvé une réserve budgétaire à hauteur de CHF 1’500’000, étant entendu que des apports, en argent ou en nature (sous la forme d’œuvres existantes), seront recherchés auprès de mécènes.

L’Institut remercie vivement les membres du jury d’avoir accepté de l’aider à donner à la Maison de la paix la dimension artistique qu’elle mérite.

Pour voir la composition du jury.

In March the structural work was completed on the Edgar de Picciotto Student House, which will welcome 243 students and a few visiting faculty members at the beginning of the 2012-2013 academic year. In addition, renovation of the exterior of the Villa Barton was completed in April.

The official ceremony marking the end of the main work on the Student House was held on 12 April. The Director of the Institute, Phillipe Burrin, and the Institute’s Real Estate Manager, Pierre Guth, congratulated and thanked the 150 construction workers who were at the ceremony. The Chairman of the Institute’s Foundation Board, Jacques Forster, as well as the architects of the Student House, Bureau Lacroix-Chessex, and representatives from the building’s technical service providers were also present. The Student House is located a short walk away from the construction site of the Maison de la paix, the Institute’s future academic hub.

On 6 April, renovation work on the exterior of Institute’s historic Villa Barton was completed. The windows and the roof of the building were replaced and the façade was refurbished. The building will consume 75% less energy for heating purposes following the renovation.

Construction of the foot bridge that will go from the Edgar de Piccotto Student House to the Maison de la paix will soon be underway. Construction began on the Maison de la paix in July 2011 and is set to be complete at the end of 2013.

Once built, the Institute’s Campus de la paix will extend from the United Nations headquarters to the shores of Lake Geneva and will span two public parks, Mon-Repos Park as well as Rigot Park, which will be redesigned. It will consist of a series of buildings: Edgar de Picciotto Student House, Maison de la paix, Portail des nations, Villa Moynier, Villa Barton, and the Rothschild building. The Campus de la paix project will provide the Institute with state of the art buildings with high environmental standards in the heart of Geneva’s district of international organisations.

Les neuf étages de la future Maison des étudiants Edgar de Picciotto, qui accueillera 249 personnes dès la rentrée académique 2012, sont désormais bien visibles depuis l’avenue de France. En effet, les travaux de gros œuvre effectués par l’entreprise Construction Perret SA sont terminés. Afin de respecter le planning, il a fallu déployer un effectif très conséquent, allant jusqu’à 50 maçons dans les périodes de pointe.

Les travaux de second œuvre ont d’ores et déjà débuté. La façade est achevée sur quatre étages. La technique (sanitaires) et les cloisons ont aussi bien avancé et progressent dans le sens de la montée des niveaux de la construction.

Malgré les grands froids et une haute complexité technique, le chantier de la Maison des étudiants se poursuit dans les délais prévus grâce au dynamisme de Pierre Guth, architecte de formation et responsable immobilier de l’Institut depuis août 2010, et à l’engagement dont font preuve le Bureau d’architectes Lacroix/Chessex, responsable de la direction des travaux, ainsi que les différentes entreprises présentes sur le chantier.

Selon Pierre Guth, « c’est une course contre la montre qui s’est engagée depuis plusieurs mois. Les entreprises en place sont très impliquées et œuvrent ardemment pour tenir le planning et livrer ce beau projet dans les délais. »

La traditionnelle cérémonie du bouquet aura lieu dans le courant du mois de mars pour fêter la fin des travaux de gros œuvre. D’ailleurs, on peut déjà apercevoir un joli sapin tout en haut de la structure.

La livraison de la Maison des étudiants Edgar de Picciotto est prévue pour fin août 2012.

The future Maison de la paix

Ms Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Mark Muller, President of the Council of State of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and Mr Pierre Maudet, Mayor of the City of Geneva, showed their interest and support for one of the largest construction sites in International Geneva by participating in the ceremony held to lay the first brick of the Maison de la Paix on Monday 24 October.

Philippe Burrin, Pierre Maudet, Mark Muller, Micheline Calmy-Rey

During the ceremony, a symbolic moment marking the passage from the planning to the construction phase, officials from the Institute and its partners placed commemorative objects inside a cornerstone which will be sealed and incorporated into the floor of the new building. Eric Ott, talented architect from the firm IPAS Architectes SA, placed the plans of the magnificent building into the stone Elisabeth Prügl, Deputy Director of the Institute, the course catalogue of the current academic year, Christine Collet-Mendy, one of the Institute’s newest recruits, the list of names of the teaching and administrative staff of the Institute, Eric Asmar, President of the Student Association, the list of students currently enrolled as well as a list of the of Institute’s alumni since 1927, and lastly Mr Peter Steiner, Vice-President of the Maison de la paix’s general contractor, Steiner SA, a bottle of wine. The video recording of the ceremony by Télévision Suisse Romande was added as well as personal objects given by the Swiss and Geneva authorities.

Mr Jacques Forster, President of the Institute’s Foundation Board, expressed his deep gratitude to the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Geneva which encouraged the creation of the institution as well as financially supported the building of the Maison de la paix, to the City of Geneva, which facilitated the coordination projects for the passerelle de Sécheron, to the Swiss Federal Railway Company for their valuable assistance and to the Hans Wilsdorf and Goehner foundations as well as Mrs Kathryn Davis for their generous support. The Maison de la paix, for which the cost is estimated at 165 millions, will be inaugurated at the end of 2013.

The ceremony in the media:

Le Temps
Tribune de Genève
TSR

Together with the Edgar de Picciotto Student House, the portail des Nations and the villa Moynier, the Maison de la Paix will form the Campus de la Paix, which will house all the activities of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID).

On this occasion, Mr. Philippe Burrin, Director of the Institute, answers our questions.

What are the Institute’s main academic projects?
First of all to strengthen our study programmes. As you know, the Institute offers both interdisciplinary master programmes and disciplinary programmes at the master and PhD level. To remain competitive we must continuously improve our programmes while ensuring high-quality teaching and consistency as well as incorporating today’s emerging global challenges.

Secondly, to further develop our research, more particularly that carried out by our centres and programmes which are working on issues that are all being addressed in Geneva (trade, conflict, the environment, migration and health). Two new cross-cutting programmes have just been launched, one on governance and the other on gender.

In general, we want to bolster our expertise. This means reinforcing what is strong and strengthening what remains weak and which we consider a priority.

Three years after the merger, how is the Institute positioned in the Swiss and international academic landscape?
Since 2007 we have recruited more than 25 professors, which greatly renewed our faculty, with what I believe is a successful mix of younger members with better gender representation and increased quality. We have also strengthened the Institute’s areas of expertise putting us in a more competitive position. We just completed a comparison of the productivity of our research with institutions such as LSE and the European Institute in Florence who are working in similar fields of specialisation. This showed that we are leading on a European level. We intend to carry out a similar exercise with institutions in North America.

What are the three main challenges that the Institute will have to face in the coming years?
The first is the globalisation of recruitment. Almost two-thirds of our students come from Europe and North America; representation from the rest of the world remains insufficient. The second is the broadening of our academic network to universities in emerging countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America – these countries constitute important demographic reservoirs and the Institute must be well positioned there. The third challenge is to increase our ability to receive researchers from around the world, as we do through our “Scholars in Residence” programme. The conditions in Geneva must be added as a fourth challenge, notably the city’s housing shortage and the strong Swiss franc. This is why housing projects such as the Edgar de Picciotto Student House are important. More generally, we must continue to increase our funding base beyond public grants, pursuing the approach that allowed us to raise almost one hundred million Swiss francs in four years from patrons and foundations for our real estate and academic projects, not to mention the income from our executive education and overheads from research contracts.

How does the Institute work with international organisations based in Geneva? Can you give us some examples?
Our collaboration takes place in all areas and at all levels. In our graduate and executive education programmes, through the participation of experts from international organisations (such as the WTO research director, the WHO legal adviser, etc). In research, through the collaboration of researchers with our centres and programmes and through joint projects submitted to the Swiss Network for International Studies. At our conferences and roundtables heads of international organisations are regular speakers. By organising platforms to encourage dialogue between international organisations: such as the one we are planning on November 23, with the support of Ruth Dreifuss for the tenth anniversary of the Doha Declaration, with a panel composed of Margaret Chan, Francis Gurry and Pascal Lamy. Lastly, international organisations recruit our students for internships, specific projects or for first jobs, strengthening our ties with them.

As Director of the Institute, what is your typical day like? How do you spend most of your time?
The bulk of my time is currently taken up by our real estate projects, fundraising and administrative supervision. I am fortunate to have the support of valuable colleagues such as Elisabeth Prügl, Deputy Director, as well as Bruno Arcidiacono, Study Programmes Director, and more generally by a motivated group of high-quality employees.

What does the “Campus de la Paix” bring to the Institute and more broadly, to Geneva?
It offers us the wonderful opportunity to have a real campus at the heart of international Geneva in the form of a network of buildings stretching from the Place des Nations to the shores of the lake connecting two parks, the beautiful Mon Repos park with the Rigot park, which will be improved following its refurbishment. We will have several buildings combining complementary needs in an area where it is difficult to obtain building permission: student lodging; concentration of research and teaching in one site at the Maison de la Paix; executive education at the Villa Barton; joint programmes with the University of Geneva at the Villa Moynier, etc.

More broadly, the Campus de la paix increases the visibility of the Institute’s role, set out by the Swiss Confederation, to be the academic partner of international Geneva. The campus will fortify the Institute’s interaction with the city’s international actors and will contribute to making it an internationally recognised centre of teaching and expertise on today’s major challenges.

What are the main strengths of Geneva as a centre of international cooperation?
Firstly, the density of international actors represented here which facilitates interaction and is not found elsewhere. Secondly, the diversity of these entities: international Geneva is not only made up of public institutions; it also comprises NGOs, as well as representatives of civil society and the private sector. Thirdly, the quality of the infrastructure available to visitors coming here to participate in dialogue with various stakeholders. Together, these elements promote the development of core expertise in a wide range of the key issues of tomorrow’s world. This strengthens the overall density and, in my view, provides stability to the system that international Geneva represents.

Cet article a été publié sur le site « Genève – coopération internationale » le 24 octobre 2011.