In Progress: Musée des Confluences / Coop Himmelb(l)au

Written by Cristian Aguilar

Architects
Coop Himmelb(l)au
Location
Lyon, France
Project Year
2014
Photographs
Courtesy of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, Hubert Canet, Balloïde
Area
46476.0 m2

Architect in Charge
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky + Partner
Design Principal
Wolf D. Prix
Project Partner
Markus Prossnigg
Project Architects
Mona Bayr, Angus Schoenberger
Project Coordination
Thomas Margaretha, Peter Grell
Local Architect, Planning
Patriarche & Co, Chambéry/Lyon, France
Project Team Vienna
Christopher Beccone, Guy Bébié, Lorenz Bürgi, Wolfgang Fiel, Kai Hellat, Robert Haranza, Alex Jackson, Georg Kolmayr, Daniel Kerbler, Lucas Kulnig, Andreas Mieling, Marianna Milioni, Andrea Schöning, Mario Schwary, Markus Schwarz, Oliver Tessmann, Dionicio Valdez, Philipp Vogt, Markus Wings, Tom Wiscombe, Christoph Ziegler, Jutta Schädler
Project Team Lyon
Francois Texier, Philippe Folliasson, Etienne Champenois, Alexandru Gheorghe, Niels Hiller, Emanuele Iacono, Pierre-Yves Six
Execution
MESA Workshop, Lyon, France
Costs
Mazet & Associés, Paris, France CUBIC, Lyon, France
HVAC
ITEE-Fluides, Arnas, France
Security Fire Consultation
Cabinet Casso & Cie, Paris, France
Acoustics
Cabinet Lamoureux, Paris, France
Lighting Consultation
Har Hollands, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Landscape Design
EGIS aménagement, Lyon, France
Project Management
Chabanne & Partenaires, Lyon, France
Construction Survey
Jean Pierre Debray
Structural Engineering Design
B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany
Structural Engineering
Coyne et Bellier, Lyon, France VS_A, Lille, France
Media Consultant
Cabinet Labeyrie, Paris, France
Scheduled Completion
2014
Site Area
20975 sqm
Net Floor Area
26700 sqm
Gross Floor Area
46476 sqm
Building Costs
EUR 150 Mio
Frequence of Visitors
500.000 visitors per year

Crystal Cloud of Knowledge

The future society will be a society of knowledge. However this knowledge can hardly be split into clearly defined fields.

Innovations develop within interspaces, within indistinctness, within the overlapping and hybridising. Questions regarding the future will be decided within transitional fields situated between technology, biology and ethics that are the central themes of the Musée des Confluences.

Mutations of form, penetrations, deformations, simultaneities, breakdowns and variabilities have an effect on architecture. The resulting architecture is characterised by the interactions, the fusion and mutation of different entities constituting a new shape.

The Musée des Confluences does not consider itself as an exclusive temple for the intellectual bourgeoisie but as a public place providing access to the knowledge of our age.

In Progress: Musée des Confluences / Coop Himmelb(l)au - Beam, Steel — Courtesy of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Stimulating a direct and active use, it is not only a museum site but also a venue in town. The architecture hybridises the typology of a museum with the typology of an urban leisure space.

Hard Space – Soft Space

The concept of two complexly connected architectural units are a result of the striking interface-like situation of the building site.

The crystal rising towards the side of the town is conceived as an urban forum and entrance hall for visitors. Its shape that can be read clearly stands for the everyday world. In contrast to this the cloud hides the knowledge about the future; it is a soft space of hidden streams and countless transitions.

Within the Musée des Confluences the present and the future, the known and the still unknown are conceived as a spatial arrangement trying to “spur public curiosity”. As an extension of the park located on the Southern top of the island a new urban space formulates itself; a landscape consisting of ramps and surfaces merging the inside and the outside and resulting in a dynamic sequence of spatial events.

This movement is also followed by the alternating spatial structure of the exhibition halls. Closed Black Boxes and free exhibition areas alternate by exploiting the double room height of two levels. The architecture is as changeable as the content entrusted.

The idea of the permanent reinvention of an urban event enables Lyon to perfectly position itself within a regional as well as within a global context.