In 2010, the second phase of the project for Lyon's Confluence neighborhood began, continuing the close interweaving of landscape and built environment over two new areas, but in a clearly distinct way. On the side facing the Rhône,replacing the wholesale market there previously, there extends a dense but still airy neighborhood, assuming a rectangular street geometry while preserving thirty percent of the industrial buildings. These newly built urban blocks are not enclosed, but traversable. The variety of heights and typologies present in the neighborhood allows light to penetrate into the many garden-courtyards, to such an extent that a significant plant and tree strata appears continually throughout the public space. The dense fabric of the neighborhood breaks off suddenly to the south at the clear boundary of the park. The area is a “field” of the old confluence of rivers, a genuine component of the park system inspired by the ancient meanderings of the site. This field is more than just placed within the general system, it takes on the status of a final, large branch, a sort of head to the overall configuration.
SPL Lyon-Confluence
MDP Michel Desvigne Paysagiste
Herzog & de Meuron, Architects (lead consultants)
35 ha (86,4 acres)