Brutalism in Lyon

Lyon's contribution to concrete architecture centers on two ambitious projects of the postwar decades. On Fourvière hill, Bernard Zehrfuss buried the Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine, now LUGDUNUM - Musée & Théâtres romains, into the slope beside the Roman theaters, its concrete spiral ramps lit from above so the ancient site remains undisturbed. Across the Rhône, the Part-Dieu district was planned in the 1960s and 70s under Charles Delfante as a new commercial center, and Henry Pottier's Auditorium de Lyon gave it a concert hall in the form of a vast concrete shell. In the Duchère district, large-scale housing and amenities like Ciné Duchère extended the era's planning ambitions to the city's western heights.