Connecting "Hot Spots"

The agreement to modernize the Édouard Herriot Hospital signed by the Hospices Civils de Lyon and the Ministry of Culture allowed the demolition of a wing on the enormous Grange Blanche site - designed in 1933 by Tony Garnier – in order to establish its new heart, the new Building H by Michel Rémon.

Preserving e the architectural integrity of the site, Michel Rémon respected the scale and rhythms of the existing ground plan, using the same architectonic vocabulary as Tony Garnier, the same grammar of negative and positive spaces, cornices and "pergolas". François Chatillon, Head Architect for Historical Monuments, worked with Rémon to define the shades and style of the façades, thereby carving out the harmony of the volumes.

A Concentric Solution

Building H, a technical support center sited at the center of the site's 22 existing wings, brought an end to their parallel functional method. It provided a concentric solution, precious for patients and for the efficiency of the institution as it brings together major and urgent operations previously scattered over the site.

Opaque E

Patients and physicians are screened from outside eyes, but the operating suites and technical services are bathed in natural light from the façades and two internal patios. The basement also has the benefit of natural light from the window wells to the north, thanks to the excavation of planted banks as already used by Tony Garnier.

Reconquering the Landscape

Landscape architect Frédéric Reynaud restored the range of plants and the atmosphere of the original "garden-hospital". Denatured over time, the balance of the landscape structured by the layout of the wings was to rediscover its perceptible "poetic" freedom thanks to the public areas being reconquered, which was possible by the creation of underground parking garages and the reorganization of surface traffic.

"The heliotropic spirit of Tony Garnier's medical complex is still there...right down to the operating suite lounge area, a space for relaxation or work of surgeons and anesthetists. Under a vast glass ceiling, this sterile yet sociable space casts “a ray of sunlight” between two operations."