Geneva, Switzerland
Villa La Tour – Lake Geneva Contemporary Landscape
A contemporary Swiss garden shaped by architecture, topography and expansive views
Situated in La Tour-de-Peilz and overlooking Lake Geneva, the landscape for Villa La Tour was designed to complement the villa’s contemporary architecture while responding to the dramatic natural setting. The scheme creates a series of distinct outdoor spaces, each offering a different experience of the site’s levels, bedrock formations and long, open views.
The entrance lawn provides a structured arrival framed by multi-stem trees, structural shrubs and herbaceous planting. A mirror pool with stepping stones forms a calm focal point, while Corten panels and a layered hedge structure create privacy and define the boundary.
The lower ground terrace sits between the villa and exposed bedrock, creating a sheltered outdoor room. Natural stone plank paving, sculptural clay pieces and textured planting soften the rock face, with informal steps leading upwards to the western gardens.
The Alpine gardens draw inspiration from the local landscape, with grass paths meandering through drifts of alpine planting and fabricated rock outcrops that introduce topography. Specimen trees frame views towards the lake and mountains, enhancing the garden’s connection to its wider setting.
The landscape opens out to a formal rear lawn, designed to align with the villa’s architecture and lead the eye towards the pool terrace below. Here, a contemporary gazebo and cantilevered pergola create a focal point for outdoor living, supported by tiered gardens and coursed stone gabion walls.
To the east, existing levels and natural rock formations are used to create a garden with a distinctly Swiss character. Timber or Corten cladding to retaining walls, layered shrub planting and a refined lightwell treatment establish texture and depth. A cantilevered viewing deck, set among cypress and pine trees, provides an elevated terrace with long views across the landscape — an evening retreat centred around a sunken fire pit.
The result is a cohesive series of contemporary gardens shaped by materiality, planting and the unique qualities of the site. Each space responds to its immediate context while working together to form a unified landscape that complements both the architecture and the alpine surroundings.