Header: Salem Mostefaoui
Located in the heart of Villeurbanne’s Mansart district—an area with a rich industrial heritage—M45 presents a bold, contemporary vision of the Productive City. This innovative project serves as a bridge between the city’s industrial past and the evolving needs of modern urban spaces, connecting commercial and production areas in a dynamic, multi-use environment. Rather than erasing history, M45 embraces and revitalizes it.
Designed as a tribute to Villeurbanne’s industrial legacy, the building preserves key architectural elements while introducing a forward-thinking approach to urban functionality. Its hybrid structure merges the characteristics of a former industrial hangar with a refined, modern aesthetic, ensuring that history is not only acknowledged but celebrated in every detail of its construction.
Compact and adaptable
M45 is conceived as a compact building structured into three primary volumes with a minimal core. This layout optimizes space by mutualizing emergency exits integrated into external walkways. These pathways create a distinct visual rhythm in the delivery courtyards while opening up sightlines at the heart of the block. Beyond enhancing accessibility and circulation, this design fosters programmatic flexibility, allowing the building to accommodate a diverse mix of uses, from commercial and educational activities to residential and production spaces.
Designed with adaptability in mind, M45 offers reversible spaces that can evolve alongside its users’ needs. The building’s flexible architecture allows for easy reconfigurations, ensuring long-term viability across different functions. On the ground and first floors, small artisan workshops provide space for local craft and production, while the upper levels house offices and commercial units—both of which can be repurposed for alternative uses as demands shift over time.
Essentialist architecture
Defined by an essentialist architectural approach, M45 embodies a refined simplicity that prioritises both function and form. The building’s subdivision into smaller units facilitates direct access to the core of the block, encouraging permeability and connectivity. Each volume features a streamlined circulation core, complemented by interconnecting walkways that enhance movement and interaction, creating a dynamic, interconnected urban space.
Beyond its architectural innovation, M45 integrates harmoniously into the existing urban landscape, reinforcing the area’s creative economy. By fostering small-scale production within the city, the project promotes a more compact, efficient urban model, where diverse functions coexist and complement one another.
The project was designed by Triptyque, a French-Brazilian architecture and urbanism agency known for its naturalist and rationalist approach. It is led by Guillaume Sibaud and Olivier Raffaëlli, founding partners, trained at the Paris La Seine School of Architecture and the Paris Institute of Urbanism.
Driven by a common interest in contemporary metropolises and the desire to confront other realities, they founded Triptyque agency in São Paulo in 2000, and in Paris in 2008.
For more than two decades, Triptyque has been developing public and private architecture, urbanism, and interior projects in Latin America and Europe in various sectors such as residential, corporate, education, hospitality, healthcare, and research. In addition, the agency has also taken part in several exhibitions and biennials. Models of some of their designs have been included in museum collections, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Triptyque has received numerous international awards, and their work has been published in many countries.
