ARCHITECTURE(S) EN MOUVEMENT

Filming a Changing Urban World
“Plaza on Tour” at Pavillon Sicli, Geneva
September 18 to 28, 2025

This September, the Plaza Foundation will return with the second episode of Plaza on Tour, a unique cinematic experience at the crossroads of architecture, film, and urban transformation.

Following its first appearance at Art Geneva 2025 with a focus on the human body, Plaza on Tour now moves to the Pavillon Sicli in Geneva for ten days of screenings dedicated to urban architecture and collective design.

From September 18 to 28, the Plaza Foundation and the Pavillon Sicli Foundation will host a temporary cinema space featuring short films, documentaries, and rare screenings, including premieres never shown before in Switzerland.

This curated film program invites viewers to rethink architecture beyond the myth of the solitary genius. Instead, it celebrates collaborative design, shared intelligence, and a renewed connection with nature and the living world.

In the face of rapid urban change and the pressing need to green our cities, the event asks:
How can we build urban spaces that are more inclusive, sustainable, and human-centered?

A UNIQUE ARCHITECTURAL INSTALLATION

The screenings will take place in a 36 m² mobile cinema, designed by BUREAU, installed inside the iconic Pavillon Sicli. This structure draws inspiration from the Quonset hut, a semi-circular galvanized steel building popularized in the 1940s. Originally used for military purposes, it later became a symbol of flexible, accessible architecture for working-class communities across the globe.

This temporary cinema reflects architect Marc J. Saugey’s fascination with industrial forms and the adaptability of space—an ideal setting for exploring cinema’s relationship to the built environment.

FILMS AND COLLECTIVE REFLECTIONS

Spanning fiction, documentary, and a roundtable discussion, the program encourages critical reflection on how we shape our cities and how cities, in turn, shape us. These films explore architecture not as static structure, but as a living, evolving practice, deeply connected to the social and ecological fabric of our time.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Screenings from Thursday, September 18 to Sunday, September 28, 2025
Continuously from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., free admission
Closed Monday, September 22 and Tuesday, September 23
Opening Thursday, September 18 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with a roundtable discussion from 6:30 p.m. followed by a cocktail reception

Curated by:
Close Up festival, Paris

Address:
Pavillon Sicli, route des Acacias 45, 1227 Geneva
Acces stop Pictet-Thellusson, tram 15 or stop Lancy Pont Rouge (bus 21,43, D or CFF Ceva)

Photo credit:
Federal.li