The distribution giant is thinking big with this new store with XXL departments. Opened last February, it has already attracted a lot of attention and you will quickly understand why.
Imagine doing your shopping under a monumental nave, where industrial history and architectural elegance meet. For residents of this urban neighborhood, checkout has just taken on a radically different dimension. The champion of value for money has just inaugurated a space that shakes up all the codes of the traditional supermarket.
The challenge was significant: to establish 2,400 m² of fresh produce and bazaar departments in a protected location, without distorting it. The project required two years of instruction and close collaboration with the Architects of Buildings of France. Every technical detail has been designed to be reversible. The original floor is preserved under a 15 cm concrete slab, the lighting fixtures are suspended from ropes so as not to pierce the ceilings, and even the fire system uses water mist, which is gentler on the building than a traditional device.
The issue was not only aesthetic, it was also practical. By leaving its old 700 m² premises which had become too small for its 20,000 weekly customers, the brand simply crossed the street to triple its surface area. A necessary expansion for this dense neighborhood, validated by the municipality which sees it as an essential local service, creating 20 new jobs in the process.
The secret is finally lifted on this extraordinary address: the new store is nestled in the former Citroën garage, one of the most emblematic Art Deco buildings in Lyon. Located at 35 rue de Marseille, this concrete and glass colossus, built between 1930 and 1932 by Maurice-Jacques Ravazé, could once accommodate up to 1,000 cars. Listed in the Inventory of Historic Monuments since 1992, the building is beginning its third life here after having housed offices and a higher education school.
Today, under this masterful structure, the brand keeps its promise of affordable prices despite the complexity of the project. Circulating along 4 meter wide aisles, customers can admire a Citroën car on loan from the Henri-Malartre museum: a final elegant nod to the industrial past of this Lyon jewel.
