Project Description
LYON – URBAN UTOPIAS II: LA CITÉ DES ETOILES AND TONY GARNIER’S MONUMENT TO THE DECEASED SOLDIERS
Languages available: EN FR
Customizable tour: Yes
Recommended group size per guide: 25
Duration: 4 hours
DESCRIPTION – Lyon – Urban Utopias II: La Cité des Etoiles and Tony Garnier’s Monument to the Deceased Soldiers
“The City of the Stars” JEAN RENAUDIE , Givors 1974-1981:
In the 1960’s the decline of the steel industry in the working class riverside city of Givors had rendered unhealthy the ancient quarter climing up the the hill to the Château. The mayor, Camille Vallin, having organized a competition, refused all the 26 projects by architects who ignored the hillside and the city.
He searched Jean Renaudie having heard of his project at Ivry using triangular forms with triangular terrasses, like cascading « stars ».
Hand in hand, the mayor and Jean Renaudie fought to construct their project of 207 apartments of which 150 would be social. They searched to have a theater, a librairie, kindergarden and stores.
Jean Renaudie as opposed the Modern Movement Architects wanted the project to take its roots in the hill and the Château, that all the apartments be different and all have terraces. He wanted the vegetation previewed on the terraces to cover the architecture. He even came down from Paris several times to explain his architectural approche to the inhabitants.
TONY GARNIER – « Monument for the Deceased Soldiers » Island of Memories, Park of the Golden Head, Lyon 1920-1930 National Historical Monument 1982:
After passing through the International City by Renzo Piano, we shall enter the Rose Garden of the Parc of the Golden Head. Taking a tunnel underneath the lake, we shall be on the Island of Memoiries where the Monument designed by Tony Garnier and sculpted during 10 years by Jean Baptiste then Auguste Larrivé, Louis Bertoia and Claude Grange. Extremely affected by the First World War, Tony Garnier dedicated his last years to these monuments.
