Euronews opened its brand new global headquarters in Lyon, France on Thursday, and I am pretty sure Lyon just got an iconic landmark on the bank of its Saône River.
Paris-based architects Jakob+MacFarlane’s work became reality in four years, and now the multilingual news television channel has a modern and extravagant new home in the district Confluence, where two big rivers — Rhône and Saône — join up.
Euronews has about 800 staff in Lyon, now they have a total of 10,000 square meters working space — multimedia offices, high-tech facilities, and studios — across six floors. The following video shows the main characteristics of the vibrant green cuboid building:
The monolithic office building’s perforated skin and the two large round openings on the river side make the pan-European television headquarters a rather outstanding piece of architecture. It is sure that, with its luminous green presence, this is one of the most visible buildings at the heart of Lyon. And those eyes! Jakob+MacFarlane architects explain their concept thus:
The Euronews project is conceived as a stretched cube pierced by two conical atriums introducing daylight, air and providing views of the river for the building’s users. These atriums are imagined as two gigantic eyes looking onto the river and its environment.
Symbolically, the eyes also represent those of Euronews, abstract receptors, capturing the events of the world around us. An image that resonates with the role of observer of world affairs associated with the news channel.
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borell
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
©euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE / photo: Nicolas Borel
© euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE
© euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE
© euronews / JAKOB + MACFARLANE
© euronews / architectes JAKOB + MACFARLANE
© euronews / architectes JAKOB + MACFARLANE