La Doua, University campus and residential district in Villeurbanne, France
La Doua is a university campus and residential neighborhood in Villeurbanne, home to several institutions including Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. The site is organized around pedestrian zones, cycling paths, and academic buildings spread across a planned layout that combines green spaces with research and teaching facilities.
The site began as a military barracks built on the grounds of a former horse-racing track, and in 1957 architect Jacques Perrin-Fayolle oversaw its conversion into a university campus. That shift set the course for decades of growth in research and higher education in this part of Villeurbanne.
The campus holds geological and zoological collections displayed across several buildings, which students and visitors can explore freely. Theaters like Théâtre Astrée and La Rotonde stage regular performances that draw audiences from both the campus and the surrounding city.
The campus is easy to get around on foot, and cycling paths make it even simpler to move between buildings, with bike rental available year-round. Orientation maps are posted at several points across the site and help visitors find their way around the large area.
Before becoming a military site, the land was used as a horse-racing track, giving it an unusual layered past that few visitors know about. Some of the wide, straight paths crossing the campus today still follow the old layout of that earlier use.
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