Villa Mundi
Geneva, Switzerland
- Category
- Heritage, Residential, Corporate
- Size
- 2,000 m2
- Type
- Renovation & Transformation, Interior Design, Historic Preservation, Landscape Design, Furnishings & Accessories, Artwork Sourcing
Heritage is not preserved by imitation, but by understanding the spirit of a place deeply enough to allow it to evolve without losing its soul.
Milena Cvijanovich
Revealing the Original Vision
The restoration of Villa Mundi began with a profound respect for Georges Brera's 1958 modernist masterpiece. At the time of the project, the villa had stood abandoned for more than a decade and was under consideration for heritage protection. Today, it forms part of Geneva's inventory of protected buildings. Rather than treating the house as an artifact to be frozen in time, the project sought to reveal and amplify the qualities that made it exceptional: its geometric clarity, fluid circulation, and remarkable sequence of perspectives. Original materials and architectural features were carefully restored, while interventions were conceived to celebrate the intelligence and generosity embedded within the original design.
The Gallery
Originally conceived as a ramped corridor linking the day spaces to the guest wing, the Gallery has been transformed into one of the villa's defining spaces. A flowing sequence of seating, art, and carefully framed views encourages pause and conversation while overlooking the courtyard below. What was once a purely functional passage has become an inhabited promenade, revealing the extraordinary spatial generosity and layered perspectives that have always been at the heart of Brera's design.
Extending the Architectural Narrative
The challenge was not simply to preserve the villa, but to continue its story. Landscape and architecture were approached as a single composition, allowing new interventions to emerge naturally from the existing structure. The most emblematic gesture was the preservation of the mature cedar tree, whose protected roots inspired a curved architectural form that embraces the tree while opening expansive views toward the lake. Elsewhere, gardens, terraces, water features, and the new pavilion transform the grounds into an extension of Brera's original vision, creating new experiences while remaining in dialogue with the existing architecture.
The search was not for what to restore, but what to reveal. Spaces, views, and relationships that were always present now emerge with renewed clarity and purpose.
Heritage Through Reinterpretation
Throughout Villa Mundi, preservation was approached as an act of interpretation. Original architectural gestures were respected while being given renewed relevance through contemporary design. The bathrooms were reimagined with a subtle reference to the optimism of the post-war era, while the villa's iconic staircase acquired a new presence through a bespoke Cubist-inspired copper screen that both conceals and reveals its concrete form. Rooted in the Bauhaus ideals that inspired the original house, each intervention balances continuity and invention, allowing the building's story to unfold across generations.
Every intervention feels as though it belongs. Nothing imitates the original architecture, yet nothing feels foreign to it. The dialogue between past and present is seamless.
Villa Mundi
Geneva, Switzerland
- Category
- Heritage, Residential, Corporate
- Size
- 2,000 m2
- Type
- Renovation & Transformation, Interior Design, Historic Preservation, Landscape Design, Furnishings & Accessories, Artwork Sourcing
Heritage is not preserved by imitation, but by understanding the spirit of a place deeply enough to allow it to evolve without losing its soul.
Milena Cvijanovich
Revealing the Original Vision
The restoration of Villa Mundi began with a profound respect for Georges Brera's 1958 modernist masterpiece. At the time of the project, the villa had stood abandoned for more than a decade and was under consideration for heritage protection. Today, it forms part of Geneva's inventory of protected buildings. Rather than treating the house as an artifact to be frozen in time, the project sought to reveal and amplify the qualities that made it exceptional: its geometric clarity, fluid circulation, and remarkable sequence of perspectives. Original materials and architectural features were carefully restored, while interventions were conceived to celebrate the intelligence and generosity embedded within the original design.
The Gallery
Originally conceived as a ramped corridor linking the day spaces to the guest wing, the Gallery has been transformed into one of the villa's defining spaces. A flowing sequence of seating, art, and carefully framed views encourages pause and conversation while overlooking the courtyard below. What was once a purely functional passage has become an inhabited promenade, revealing the extraordinary spatial generosity and layered perspectives that have always been at the heart of Brera's design.
Extending the Architectural Narrative
The challenge was not simply to preserve the villa, but to continue its story. Landscape and architecture were approached as a single composition, allowing new interventions to emerge naturally from the existing structure. The most emblematic gesture was the preservation of the mature cedar tree, whose protected roots inspired a curved architectural form that embraces the tree while opening expansive views toward the lake. Elsewhere, gardens, terraces, water features, and the new pavilion transform the grounds into an extension of Brera's original vision, creating new experiences while remaining in dialogue with the existing architecture.
The search was not for what to restore, but what to reveal. Spaces, views, and relationships that were always present now emerge with renewed clarity and purpose.
Heritage Through Reinterpretation
Throughout Villa Mundi, preservation was approached as an act of interpretation. Original architectural gestures were respected while being given renewed relevance through contemporary design. The bathrooms were reimagined with a subtle reference to the optimism of the post-war era, while the villa's iconic staircase acquired a new presence through a bespoke Cubist-inspired copper screen that both conceals and reveals its concrete form. Rooted in the Bauhaus ideals that inspired the original house, each intervention balances continuity and invention, allowing the building's story to unfold across generations.
Every intervention feels as though it belongs. Nothing imitates the original architecture, yet nothing feels foreign to it. The dialogue between past and present is seamless.