Lake Geneva (French: le Léman, lac Léman, rarely lac de Genève; Italian: Lago Lemano; German: Genfersee; Romansh: Lai da Genevra) is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty per cent (345.31 km² or 133.32 sq mi) of the lake belongs to Switzerland (the cantons of Vaud, Geneva and Valais) and forty per cent (234.71 km² or 90.62 sq mi) to France (the department of Haute-Savoie). Lake Geneva is divided into three parts because of its different types of formation (sedimentation, tectonic folding, glacial erosion): read more…
Alinghi is the syndicate set up by Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, to challenge for the America’s Cup, as well as other competitions. Bertarelli had raced several smaller yachts named Alinghi previously, but 2003 was his first attempt at the America’s Cup. Alinghi challenged for and won the 2003 America’s Cup in AucklandNew Zealand and successfully defended it at the 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain. Alinghi lost the America’s Cup to the Golden Gate Yacht Club and their team BMW Oracle Racing in a Deed of Gift match in Valencia, Spain in February 2010. For the 2003 event, Team New Zealand as the holder of the America’s Cup, in consultation with Prada, the Challenger of Record, removed the nationality rule that stipulated that all of the crew members must be nationals of the challenging syndicate. read more…
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international economic organization in the world. The WTO deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants’ adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986–1994). read more…
The Palace of Nations is the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva, located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was built between 1929 and 1938 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations. It has served as the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva since 1946 when the Secretary-General of the United Nations signed a Headquarters Agreement with the Swiss authorities, although Switzerland did not become a member of the United Nations until 2002. In 2012 alone, the Palace of Nations hosted more than 10,000 intergovernmental meetings. An architectural competition held in the 1920s to choose a design for the complex described the project as follows: read more…
Johann Jacob Schweppe (March 16, 1740 – November 18, 1821) was a German-born naturalised Swiss watchmaker and amateur scientist who developed the first practical process to manufacture carbonated mineral water, based on a process discovered by Joseph Priestley in 1770. read more…
A former industrial hall, near the center of Geneva (Switzerland), hosts these new offices designed in order to make the best use of the 780 sqm and the 9m of height. This white and luminous space contains a hidden treasure: 16 recycled shipping containers. All of which have been traveling across the world for thousands of kilometers over the oceans of the globe. Piled up as giant Legos, the containers were preserved “as found” without any outside cosmetic transformation. This aesthetic keeps the poetry of their former use and differentiates them from the immateriality of the big neutral space they lie in. Realistically, the use of containers represents a gain of about 200 sqm, while making good use of the height within the space. read more…
Embedded between nearby Alpine peaks and the hilly terrain of the Jura, the French-speaking city of Geneva lies in the bay where the Rhone leaves Lake Geneva. With its humanitarian tradition and cosmopolitan flair, the European seat of the UNO and headquarters of the Red Cross is known as the “capital of peace”. read more…
