Architect gets go-ahead for final blocks of Confluence scheme, masterplanned with Herzog & de Meuron
David Chipperfield Architects has been granted planning permission for the final elements of its three-block La Confluence scheme in the French city of Lyon.
The 30,000sq m scheme was developed in collaboration with Vera Associés, Aires Mateus Associados and local architects AIA, for Lyon’s high-profile regeneration zone on former industrial land at the peninsula created by the convergence of the Rhône and Saône rivers.
Chipperfield secured consent for the development’s first urban block last year. It brings together four buildings including an office block designed for flexibility and potential future conversion into apartments. Construction is due to start in the coming weeks.
The architect said the second and third urban blocks would include a mixed-use tower and a social housing building with timber structure.
Chipperfield’s Lyon Confluence scheme will contribute a total of 11 buildings to the area, slotting into Herzog & de Meuron’s masterplan for the second phase of Lyon’s expansion.
The practice said its role “entailed adapting the wider masterplan to the specific site and proposed programme as well as developing strategies for the landscape and the general massing, organisation and façade design” of the buildings.
“The process involved mediating between and coordinating with the city, clients, sustainability consultants, landscape architects and the other architects involved in the site,” it said.
“Regular collaborative workshops were held to test and develop the proposals.”
Among the distinctive buildings at La Confluence are Paris-based practice Jakob & MacFarlane’s Orange Cube building and Euronews Headquarters. At its southernmost point is a museum designed by Austrian practice Coop Himmelb(l)au.
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