The development is in La Confluence, a previously industrial area of the French city where the Rhne and Sane rivers converge, and is part of a masterplan by Herzog & de Meuron. David Chipperfield Architects (DCA) was appointed to coordinate three blocks consisting of 11 buildings, creating a mixed-use quarter with a focus on social and environmental sustainability. Other buildings in the scheme are designed by Atelier VERA & Associs Architectes and Aires Mateus e Associados.This 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 faade design of the buildings.The buildings contain a range of housing tenures, offices and a health centre. While there is an architecturally coherence to the whole ensemble, each building is designed to be individual in character. Within each block, the buildings are grouped to define garden courtyards. Transparent and permeable ground floors allow permeability between the garden courts and the street, which together with communal spaces and retail units, help animate the surrounding public spaces.AdvertisementAs well as coordinating this quarter, DCA was appointed to design three individual buildings, one within each of the blocks. These include a social housing building, a mixed-use tower and an office building. All three are shaped by their structure and defined by simple rectilinear forms, tailored to their specific locations.Architects viewThe social housing building is made from cross-laminated timber wrapped externally in a precast concrete faade of alternating bands of profiled and smooth panels.Deep recesses in two of its faades create loggias for the apartments facing a public square to the south and the garden to the east. The entrance hall provides a link from street to garden while a caf opens towards the public square.The mixed-use tower contains offices on the lower floors and apartments above. Together with a second tower by Aires Mateus it creates an entrance gesture for the new quarter. In reaction to its dense context, the building has large windows at its corners on the office levels with corresponding balconies in the apartments, offering views over the city and river. The in-situ concrete faade with its continuous board-marked texture emphasises the sculptural quality of the building.The office building is prominently located on the riverfront and is designed for flexibility and a potential future conversion into apartments, ensuring the long- term sustainability of the building. Balconies run along the two principal faades, facing the river and garden respectively. These are articulated by in-situ concrete columns that stand proud of a recessed timber faade. A central hall links to an open staircase, expressed in the west faade, that connects the building to the garden. Source:David Chipperfield ArchitectsProject dataCompletion date 2024Gross internal floor area 30,000m2Construction cost UndisclosedArchitect David Chipperfield Architects with AIA Architectes (buildings D, E, K); Atelier VERA & Associs Architectes (buildings A, C, F, H, I); Aires Mateus e Associados (buildings B, G, L)Client Bouygues Immobilier (blocks A1N, A2N), Linkcity (block A1S)Structural engineer CogeciBuilding physics KateneM&E consultant Quadriplus GroupeQuantity surveyor ProcobatLandscape consultant Wirtz InternationalAcoustic consultant AcouphenSustainability consultant Milieu StudioLighting consultant KateneBuilding control Socotec