The Île de Nantes is a 5-kilometre-long island in the Loire that was, until the early 21st century, dominated by the massive former shipyards of the Dubigeon and Chantiers de l'Atlantique companies. The yard is now closed, but the island has been transformed into one of the most interesting urban regeneration projects in France — home to Les Machines de l'Île, the regional theatre, a cluster of architecture and design schools, restaurants and cultural venues.
The western tip of the island, around the former cranes and slipways, has been deliberately retained as a ruin — the enormous covered slipways and rusting cranes are preserved as industrial archaeology, and they frame the views across the river in a way that is both melancholy and magnificent. The island is still being developed, and sections of it remain raw and unfinished, which gives it energy that more polished urban regeneration projects lack.