Smurftown (Les Schtroumpfs), Geneva

(Reader Contribution to 10 Most Creative Apartment Blocks)


In an untouristed part of central Geneva, five minutes' walk behind the main railway station, lies Smurftown, an estate designed by Robert Frei, Christian Hunziker and Georges Berthoud for the city council. Walking here is a rather cartoon-like experience in itself: everything is in a riot of primary colours; the high-rise blocks have woodland-style lumps and knots sticking out at random; giant mushrooms support balconies with cobweb railings amid fairytale spiral staircases and twisted-liquorice columns. It's an inspired, whimsical exercise in Gaudí-esque fantasy and by all accounts the residents - who, inevitably, have come to be called Smurfs themselves.


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