Located a few kilometers to the north of Geneva, the town of Ferney-Voltaire benefits from a unique and remarkable geographical position, determined significantly by the presence of the Alps. Lake Geneva and the geological folds of the Jura form landscapes parallel to one another. Over the years, agricultural lands have slowly come to develop within the range of the Jura forest. Having become less and less dense, the forest has been transformed into large wooded areas and, in places, cordons of trees. The bocage aspect of some of the territory bears witness to this transformation of the landscape.

The future neighborhood, designed with Renzo Piano, finds itself within this geographical uniqueness. It seeks to reinterpret the surrounding components in order to create “a neighborhood in the clearing”. A large, twelve hectare woodland will circle around the neighborhood, thereby establishing the limits of the site at twenty-five hectares. Inside this clearing, an orthogonal layout structures a web of gardens and basins, a network of roads and buildings. Residential areas are set up with a southern orientation, facing the chain of the Alps, providing views of the mountains with the forest in the foreground.