From a former wasteland to a genuine cultural hub, Lyon's Confluence area accounts for one of Europe's boldest city-center urban developments. Odile Decq's Pavilion 8 office building will house a "floating" restaurant and offices in Lyon's former wharf district. When Jean-Paul Viossat, director of the Rhône Saone Développement, first opened his office in the Lyon Confluence district in 2004, the industrial zone was full of derelict buildings and empty streets. “We lived together with local prostitutes and drug addicts,” he recalls. "They were the only living souls in the area." What a difference a decade can make. Today, the district,
Rudy Ricciotti and Mario Bellini’s “flying carpet” is be the largest intervention to the Musée du Louvre since I. M. Pei plunged pyramids into its central courtyard in 1988.