area 131 | fuksas

architect: Studio Fuksas

location: Lyon

year: 2010

photo by Philippe Ruault

The Confluence, well before the great and important planned infrastructures, represents a place of strong character, a beautiful natural setting, with the green hill of Sainte-Foy, the two rivers and the proximity of the historic center of Lyon, full of history. The project starts with a study around the possibility of building a housing complex around a large void, the park, that opens into another void, the dock. The two voids, the park and the dock, constitute the skeleton of the project.
To locate the volumes, priority has been given to the longitudinal direction of the park and the dock. The idea that brought to build another void between the buildings is the heart of the area. The central part was left open on the west side, looking to the hill. The voids between the buildings are never in line and offer different views towards the park and the docks.
The construction of the volumes is entirely based on the interstices where the light of the voids delimits the solids.
On the volumes of the buildings, in a continuous play of light, a series of rotations and distortions, give life to blocks of matter that become habitable sculptures.