The La Doua University Campus in Villeurbanne and architect Jacques Perrin-Fayolle (1920–1990)
A few years ago, as I was cycling across the campus to visit a friend living in one of the student residences, I didn’t fully realize that a unique architectural heritage, rooted in modernism and its legacy, was right there in front of me.
The Faculty of Science and the INSA were both designed by architect Jacques Perrin-Fayolle. As I began to look deeper into his work, I discovered that this architect, previously unknown to me, had an incredibly prolific career in the Lyon region and beyond: the Louis Pradel cardiology hospital, the Part-Dieu library, Centrale Lyon, and many more. His work spans all fields: educational, hospital, and university buildings, as well as collective and private housing.
Philippe Dufieux, professor of architectural history at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon, restores his legacy in his remarkable book “Jacques Perrin-Fayolle, architect of higher education in the Lyon metropolitan area”, published by PUL (Presses Universitaires de Lyon).
Jacques Perrin-Fayolle trained at the Lyon School of Architecture starting in 1941, before continuing at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Pontremoli-Leconte studio in 1946. He won several awards, including the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome in architecture in 1950.
He traveled extensively around the world: the United States in 1948 (New York, San Francisco, Chicago…), where he discovered the work of Mies van der Rohe, as well as Frank Lloyd Wright’s summer house and the iconic Fallingwater, which he sketched in his travel notebook. He later explored Moscow (1958), Brazil (1962), Mexico, and Venezuela. His style is undeniably shaped by these journeys. For instance, the bas-reliefs of the Mayan temple of Uxmal (Mexico) clearly influenced some of his later collaborations with sculptor Denis Morog (see the Darwin building on the La Doua campus).
In 1954, he was appointed architect of civil buildings and national palaces, as well as consulting architect for the Ministry of Public Health.
The following year, he was commissioned to design the La Doua university campus in Villeurbanne, developing a 90-hectare site including INSA, a nuclear research institute, a scientific library, the School of Industrial Chemistry, restaurants, and student residences.
Construction began in 1957. Today, La Doua campus hosts over 22,000 students.
Since 2016, a vast rehabilitation and modernization project, driven by sustainable development goals, has been underway.
This unprecedented project concerns 22 buildings and these large-scale works are still ongoing today.
If you’re passionate about architecture, I strongly encourage you to explore La Doua: a still underappreciated architectural landscape. In this article, we focus on one particular building, the “Black Diamond,” home to the Institute of Nuclear Physics.
The Black Diamond
Building no. 212 Émile Haeffely, immediately sparks curiosity with its mysterious presence. Easily recognizable, it takes the form of a dark monolithic block, its surface covered in a distinctive diamond-point texture, onto which glazed ceramic tiles are applied. Each diamond base measures approximately 1.15 meters. Today, where some tiles have fallen away, red brick becomes visible beneath. The building houses three particle accelerators cutting-edge research equipment in the field of nuclear physics.
Its architecture, both functional and avant-garde for its time, is a strong example of 1960s modernism, specifically adapted to the demands of scientific research. The one-meter-thick walls protect the particle accelerators from external interference and shield against X-rays and gamma radiation. The protective doors are also made of concrete of the same thickness. This structure could easily belong in a Marvel comic. The raw concrete base, with its petal-like forms resembling thick discs, reinforces its brutalist character. The orange tone of the intermediate building adds a striking contrast. To complete the composition, the structure features aluminum joinery by Jean Prouvé, with textured sandwich panels and fixed or sliding windows.
The Institute of Nuclear Physics is located at the north-western edge of the Faculty of Science. This positioning is no coincidence it reflects the specific nature of the research conducted there and the need for protective measures.
This deliberate isolation was part of the original design, directly linked to the sensitive nature of nuclear research.
The “Black Diamond” remains a symbol of scientific innovation and modernist architecture in Lyon. It perfectly illustrates how architecture can evolve alongside technology while maintaining a strong identity — shaped by an architect capable of merging aesthetics with technical constraints in a lasting, now-recognized building.
You can find Philippe Dufieux’s book here:
https://presses.univ-lyon2.fr/product/show/9782729712303/jacques-perrinfayolle
If you’re in Lyon, you’ll also find it at the beautiful Archipel bookstore, specializing in architecture, urban planning, landscape, and design, right in the heart of the city (21 place des Terreaux, Lyon 1st). Regular exhibitions are held there, and you can also discover a detailed model of the city of Lyon, definitely worth seeing.
https://www.instagram.com/archipellibrairie/
https://www.archipel-librairie.fr
