Every design for Vénissieux

Vénissieux spreads across the plain on the left bank of the Rhône, just south of Lyon, between the low hill of the old centre and the Minguettes plateau rising to the south. It has no river of its own; the first village grew where the water table lay shallow enough for wells. From that farming and wine-growing village came one of the cradles of the French car industry, with the Berliet factories the Allies bombed in 1944.

The feeling the name carries today is bound up with Les Minguettes. The riots of 1981 and 1983 drew national attention, and out of that tension came the March for Equality and Against Racism, a non-violent movement that spread across France. Large renewal programmes have since reshaped the district, and places like the Parc des Minguettes and the Parc de la Cité Berliet sit in a town still proud of its working past.

For the Vénissians, coming home means the climb up to the plateau and the familiar streets below it.