David Chipperfield Architects has just completed a three-building scheme for the larger La Confluence master plan in Lyon, France designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The program includes a small office building, housing block, and mixed-use tower. The firm tells us each is "shaped by their structure and defined by their simple rectilinear forms yet react to their specific location in different ways."

All three mirror each other and the other buildings in the plan thanks to the choice of mineral-like materials to cover each of their facades. The three buildings combined offer a gross floor area equal to 30,000 square meters (appx. 323,000 square feet) and were designed especially to enhance their site's riverfront connection. 

Housing—or at least its possibility—become another critical aspect of the project, as spaces in the office tower have also been designed for potential future conversion into residential accommodation.

The main housing block is made from CLT and precast concrete panels. This composition is seen again in the nine-story office building's arrangement of recessed timber panels along each of its two facades, held in place by in-situ concrete columns. 

The mixed-use building features a visual symmetry made by dividing corner windows rising in the lower office component corner balconies in the upper residential floors. The introduction of board marked concrete facade grants a sculptural quality. It also stands as a less dense "gateway" to the plan's newest quarter.

Aires Mateus, Atelier Vera, and AIA Architectes also contributed to the La Confluence master plan. The Belgian firm Wirtz International served as the project's landscape designer.