Confluence District
Confluence District features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Lyon. Give it roughly ~90 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type landmark
- Suggested visit ~90 min
- Lyon Lyon guide
About Confluence District
Lyon's striking 21st-century urban regeneration project at the tip of the Presqu'île, where the Saône and Rhône meet, bold contemporary architecture, a new mixed-use neighbourhood, and the spectacular Musée des Confluences.
The Confluence district, at the southern tip of Lyon's Presqu'île, is one of Europe's most ambitious urban regeneration projects, the transformation of a former industrial wasteland (the city's old railway yards and warehouses) into a new mixed-use neighbourhood over a twenty-year period beginning in 2003. The centrepiece is the Musée des Confluences (2014), a deconstructivist building by the Vienna-based practice Coop Himmelb(l)au, whose jagged steel-and-glass form rising at the very point where the Saône and Rhône meet has become one of the iconic images of contemporary Lyon. Around it, new residential blocks, offices, a shopping centre (the Confluence mall), a multiplex cinema, restaurants, and parks have created an entirely new urban quarter that now houses some 15,000 residents. The district has been built to high environmental standards and includes solar panels, district heating, and extensive cycle infrastructure. The ongoing Phase 2 of the project is extending the development southwards, with further contemporary buildings by internationally recognised architects.
Did you know? The Saône and Rhône rivers actually flow side by side for several kilometres after their confluence, not fully mixing, the darker Saône water and the lighter-coloured Rhône water create a visible boundary that Lyon residents call "the two rivers in one."
How long is a visit to Confluence District?
Set aside roughly ~90 min for Confluence District. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Confluence District worth your time?
Confluence District is among the 25 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Lyon, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Lyon
Hear the story of Confluence District
Preview the Lyon tour free in the Gingerguide app.