LYON METRO, Light as an Everyday Experience

Approached by Alstom Design and Styling for the lighting design of Lyon's new metro, Jacques Rival responded to this competition with a conviction rooted throughout his practice: light is never mere decoration, but a design material capable of bringing a space to life across different timeframes.

Drawing on his experience at the Fête des Lumières, where he had tested these ideas at every scale, Jacques Rival approached here a very different kind of place from public squares: the daily environment of thousands of commuters. For him, this light could not settle for aesthetic effect alone; it had to awaken the daydreaming that lies dormant in everyone, transforming an ordinary journey into a soft, weightless sensory experience.

The project, which won the competition, was later extended through a graphic study of the logo, published in Alstom's Design Book.