Dutch firm MVRDV is to renovate Lyon’s Part-Dieu shopping centre, which was built in 1975 and is still the biggest downtown shopping centre in Europe.
The Part-Dieu project will also include the renovation of the surrounding district.
The scheme looks to redefine the area’s public space by creating terraces and gardens that step up into the retail complex.
The project houses of a mixture of commercial, leisure and newly created public space.
As part of a wider urban plan for the area surrounding the Part-Dieu shopping centre, the design by MVRDV focusses on integrating the building become more in its surrounding urban fabric and hopes to allow everyday life to permeate through it.
The street is not only extended through the building via an east-west walkway, but also over it by stairways and escalators that take users up and over the complex.
MVRDV pushed to reconnect the shopping centre with the facilities in its immediate context. A rearrangement of terraces on the south façade have provided direct connection with the library, and the restructured main east entrance provides access to visitors arriving from the Part-Dieu train station; which is also due to be renovated.
The public realm on the street level is to be extended onto the shopping centre itself.