A building, a milestone towards modernity

The Town Hall and public school of Onex was inaugurated in 1909 and represents a turn both for the community of Onex and for Maurice Braillard’s career. Organised in collaboration with the district of Onex for the hundredth anniversary of the building, this pedagogical exhibition honors the vision of creators of the past century and has as its primary audience the students of Onex. At the BAF until the 29th of October, the exhibition will then travel around different schools.

A monographic leaflet by Paul Marti and Eric Golay goes with the exhibition.

Introduction

The Town Hall and school of Onex tells a human adventure. How did the protagonists of the project – the new mayor David Brolliet, the young architect Maurice Braillard, the intermediary Emile Bosonnet, the scenic painter Eric Hermès and, of course, the builders – negotiate a solution for the building, how did the building take form?

The act of building itself is not simple: it brings together designers, administrators, builders. With these many players, sometimes design and construction can be hard to negotiate.

What was Onex like in 1909? An essentially rural borough of 300 souls at the outskirts of the city, whose suburbs ended at the Petit-Lancy. A transforming hub, however, for since 1880 a modern road (route de Chancy), a tramway, sewers, water and gas pipes emerged in the rural fabric. In the city, the first cars and the first motorbikes came into sight; bicycles were popular. The city was not far away, but daily life remained mostly rural. It is in this context that the first public building was built in Onex in 1909. [Download the catalogue of the exhibition]