A Botticino marble bathing platform on Lake Geneva, combining design, functionality, and nature.

The Quai de Cologny, stretching two kilometers, is one of the most beautiful entrances to Geneva. Since 2017, this area has been the focus of an ambitious redevelopment project aimed at improving public access to the lake and promoting biodiversity.

An Italian-Swiss team, formed by Pistore Marmi, the ADAo studio, and the Implenia Rampini Consortium (comprising leading construction companies), was assembled to complete this important public work. This project presented a great challenge, both from an organizational and design perspective, as well as in its execution.

Working in coordination with architects Nicolas, Anouk, and Melchior Deville, we helped transform this vision into reality, creating a bathing platform that enhances accessibility and tourist appeal on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.

The platform, appearing to float on water thanks to a steel structure fixed to the lakebed, has an outer diameter of 18.80 meters and an inner diameter of 10.86 meters.

Its “C” shape allows swimmers to move within a wave-protected pool and in open water. An 11-meter-long walkway, composed of seven blocks of Botticino marble, connects the platform to the mainland.

Botticino marble, chosen for its timeless elegance and durability, perfectly integrates with the surrounding environment and the color of the buildings along Lake Geneva’s shores.

This project, started in September 2023, required 1,800 hours of mechanical processing and 1,000 hours of manual finishing for the 600 tons of selected marble. Each block was carefully selected from the Botticino quarries (Brescia) and entirely worked in our laboratory using cutting-edge technology while maintaining the artisanal attention to detail that distinguishes our work, meeting the highest standards of quality and aesthetics required.

Once the production of the 67 blocks was completed, they were loaded onto 14 trucks to reach Quai de Cologny. Subsequently, using a barge and a crane arm, the marble blocks were placed on the walkway and the steel structure emerging from the water. The construction company that installed the supporting structure and the platform was the Implenia Rampini Consortium (Switzerland).

Nicolas Deville, architect and co-founder of studio ADAo, explains how the idea for this work, in which the association of stone and water has distant origins, came about:

“For this project, given the geological origins of Lake Geneva but also the legend linked to the figure of the giant Gargantua who is said to have dug the lake, the use of stone was an obvious choice. From the outset, there was a close relationship between lake and rock, between water and stone. Access to the bathing platform is via a path that crosses a reedbed. Made from blocks salvaged from the site, this path leads to a narrow footbridge spanning the last few metres separating the platform from the shore. It’s a kind of initiatory journey, designed to take one’s mind off the hustle and bustle of the quayside.

The bathing installation, a crescent of stones, creates a “port of bathers”. The broken circle orients the figure towards the Geneva harbor and its Jet d’eau. This timeless construction seems unfinished, or perhaps it’s already partially “in ruins”.

In short, there’s something improbable about this “crescent” of stones on the water. This assemblage of meticulously selected, cut and sawn blocks of Botticino marble speaks to us of the context, the history of the place and the ability of rock to stand the test of time without losing its substance. Stone and water, immobile stability surrounded by an ever-changing liquid mass. Mineral matter, frozen and petrified, versus fluid in perpetual motion.

Omnipresent in our lakeside projects, the figure of the circle is broken here to interrupt the circular, infinite movement in order to instill calm and stability into the construction. This space offers people a place to relax and contemplate the landscape.”

The project’s complexity presented significant challenges, as explained by our owner, Noé Pasquale:

“It wasn’t easy to procure the dimensions and type of marble requested by the clients, especially considering the large quantities. The marbles, with a height of 50 centimeters, needed widths ranging from 2.5 meters to 1.5 meters and a depth of 1.7 meters. We spent an entire month in the quarry to wait for and select the best pieces because it was the mountain itself that had to ‘provide’ us with the blocks we needed, allowing us to work them and make them suitable for the project. The blocks had to be non-slip, with beveled corners. Everything had to be done with maximum precision; otherwise, laying them on the steel stilts could have caused problems. This work is a source of great satisfaction for our company. The result is truly surprising and rewards us for the great effort and commitment made.”

The final result, surprising and of great satisfaction for our company, is a platform that combines aesthetics and functionality, offering a refined and welcoming space for swimmers.

This project underscores our commitment to providing high-quality design solutions that respect and enhance both indoor and outdoor spaces.

Our company continues to stand out in the marble processing sector thanks to our ability to meet the needs of demanding clients worldwide, whether for small residential and commercial projects or larger and more important projects in public spaces.

With a tradition of artisanal excellence and technological innovation, we can create custom projects that reflect the beauty and uniqueness of marble, with the utmost care and attention to detail typical of Made in Italy.