“Beyond the vaults”. This is how the Lyonnais still call the end of the peninsula where the Rhône and the Saône meet. These vaults are those which support the raised rails of the Lyon-Perrache station, an obstacle brutally separating a residential and prosperous city center from a 150 hectare site which has long concentrated the nuisances of Lyon: industry, factories, slaughterhouse , jail…
In a decade, the Confluence district has gone from a disreputable industrial wasteland to a model district of the 21st century. At the origin of this project: the creation, in 1999, by the Greater Lyon and the city of Lyon of the semi-public company Lyon Confluence. A rehabilitation program was set up and, under the leadership of Gérard Collomb (elected in 2001), materialized with a first phase.
Since then, the work has never stopped, with the construction of residential and commercial buildings, head offices… forming an interesting collection of contemporary architectures concentrated in a small area.
The Museum of Confluences by Coop Himmelb (l) au. © Guillaume Grasset
La Confluence in a few examples of contemporary architecture:
• Ilôts ABC (2010). A three-part residential program running 80% on renewable energy. A varied architecture produced by three separate teams. Inside block B, an elegant residential complex all in raw concrete and wood was designed by Clément Vergely. On the edge of the nautical square are the buildings with various coatings made up of protruding or recessed blocks from the Fuksas studio, as well as the large monolith designed by MVRDV, which is, in fact, made up of 5 sections, each made by an architect. .
• Orange (2010) and green (2015) cubes. Certainly the most famous buildings that line Quai Rambaud, because they are the most visible because of their flashy colors. On the banks of the Saône, these two works are by Jakob + MacFarlane. The orange cube, headquarters of the Cardinal group, is covered with a perforated envelope and deeply pierced with a cone letting light enter the heart of the building. For the green, Euronews headquarters, similar gaps have been placed like two eyes on the facade. The mesh wrap was designed by artist Fabrice Hyber.
• GL Events (2014). With its large overhang lined with red, the architect’s favorite color Odile Decq, GL Events headquarters are located at the end of Quai Rambaud. The interior of the place draws its character from the enormous beams displayed in its atrium. Outside, the artist Felice Varini has dressed the glass facades with ghost images of the views he obscures.
• Hikari (2015). Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the Hikari building is energy positive, meaning it produces more energy than it consumes. It is the first building of such magnitude (12,800 m2) to have achieved this feat, until then reserved for single-family homes. The excess energy produced by each of the three buildings is stored and then distributed throughout the day as needed, hence the importance of mixed use.
Ilôts ABC (2010). © Guillaume Grasset
Ilôt A3 (2017). The Ynfluence Square program marks a new stage in the transformation of Confluence, the start of phase 2 of the project, which concerns its Rhône side. Placed in the center of the square, a small residential tower signed Herzog & de Meuron (also designers of the overall plan for the second phase), thus showed the way forward: sobriety, rigor, consistency.
• Ycone (2019). This is the final project of the first phase, a residential tower entrusted to Jean Nouvel. A tower that catches the eye with its fragmented, irregular facade, which widens as it rises, and which is capped by a structure providing shade to the roof terrace and its swimming pool. S.B.
Lyon, industry and… gastronomy!
“Lyon, capital of gastronomy. “ Launched in the 1930s by food critic Curnonsky, this phrase doesn’t mean much. But being a chef today in Lyon means being the heir to a rich culinary heritage. It links Renaissance butchers and 19th century “Lyonnaise mothers”, chews and corks, Eugénie Brazier and Paul Bocuse.
This story, some wanted to tell it in the International City of Gastronomy, an unconvincing attempt and quickly put on hold. Cuisine is experienced, created, reinvented and eaten in restaurants, classics and those of a new generation which, without denying the past, dust off the Lyon clichés.
Tabata and Ludovic Mey perfectly embody this new Lyon spirit. They met in front of the stoves at Marguerite, Bocuse. She, Brazilian candidate of “ Top chef »Trained at the Paul Bocuse Institute; he, the Savoyard with a classic course, spent at Christian Têtedoie. After a long journey that took them from Brazil to Copenhagen, at Noma, they opened, in 2016, in Lyon, Les Apothicaires, a Michelin star.
« What has changed between our generation and the previous one is the mentality, check out Tabata Mey. The old one was more clan, more corporatist. We are talking about links with Freemasonry, associations or sometimes sectarian bands, including that of Mr. Paul! Our generation wants to do things together with real sincerity. We exchange our recipes, we pool our suppliers and we are real friends ».
Result of this collective spirit: Food Traboule, a food court that brings together 12 chefs and their kitchens. A concept already present in Lyon with places like La Commune or Heat, but which finds here a new and atypical form. Far from industrial wastelands, Food Traboule is located in the Renaissance district, with its alleys and narrow passages: the traboules.
In this Pink Tower, the kitchens are discovered on all floors, the tables infiltrate under the listed woodwork. A cocoon in which Tabata, a bargain hunter, has placed old objects, train benches… Everyone owns their business – which is unprecedented in this kind of concept – and often another restaurant.
Good products, good practices (recycling, compost, etc.) and good dishes, nothing more was needed to attract Lyonnais. They stroll before deciding on a croque-monsieur with truffled ham from the Bistrot du Potager, a pizza from Ludo, a pancake from the Panifacture (satellite of Substrat), a baba à la Chartreuse from the Sugar shack …
The preamble to other culinary experiences to discover in this city where gastronomy is essential. ” I have never seen a place where the table is taken so seriously. Here, it’s belly! »Concludes Tabata Mey. S. B.
Key figures for the metropolis of Lyon (2020)
• 59 communes.
• 1,385,927 inhabitants, ie 17% of the population of the Auvergne ‑ Rhône ‑ Alpes region (including 534,000 inhabitants in the city of Lyon).
• € 74.6 billion of GDP (2016).
• € 3.5 billion in investment spending from 2015 to 2020.
• 140,480 public and private establishments.
• 29,471 business creations, ie + 20.7% in one year.
• 770,000 jobs (salaried and non-salaried), including 594,300 in the private sector.
• € 21,582 of median disposable income per consumption unit (France: € 20,809).
• 7.6% unemployment rate (France: 8.3%).
• 75,550 jobs in industry, or 13% of total jobs, including:
– 8,300 in the chemical industry,
– 8,200 in the pharmaceutical industry,
– 7,800 in the energy sector,
– 13,500 in metallurgy, machinery and equipment.
• 164,000 students, 13% of whom are international. I. C.
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