Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France by Coop Himmelb(l)au

Article source: Coop Himmelb(l)au

 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.

Image Courtesy © Hubert Canet, Balloïde Photo

• Architects: Coop Himmelb(l)au
• Project: Musée des Confluences
• Location: Lyon, France
• Photography: Markus Pillhofer, Hubert Canet, Balloïde Photo
• Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky + Partner
• Project Partner: Markus Prossnigg
• Project Architects: Mona Bayr, Angus Schoenberger
• Project Coordination: Thomas Margaretha, Peter Grell
• 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
• Client: Département du Rhône, Lyon, France, Represented by SERL, Lyon, France
• Planning: Patriarche & Co, Chambéry/Lyon, France
• Execution: MESA Workshop, Lyon, France
• Project Managerment: Chabanne & Partenaires, Lyon, France
• Construction Survey Lyon: Jean Pierre Debray
• Costs: Mazet & Associés, Paris, France, CUBIC, Lyon, France

Image Courtesy © Hubert Canet, Balloïde Photo

• Structural Engineering (Design): B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany
• Structural Engineering (Executive):Coyne et Bellier, Lyon, France, VS_A, Lille, France
• HVAC: ITEE-Fluides, Arnas, France
• Security Fire Consultation: Cabinet Casso & Cie, Paris, France
• Acoustics: Cabinet Lamoureux, Paris, France
• Media Consulation: Cabinet Labeyrie, Paris, France
• Lighting Consultation: Har Hollands, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Landscape Design: EGIS aménagement, Lyon, France
• Competition (1st Prize): 2001
• Start of Planning: 2002
• Start of Construction: 10, 2006
• Scheduled Completion: 2014
• Site Area: 20,975 m²
• Net Floor Area: 26,700 m²
• Gross Floor Area: 46,476 m²
• Building Costs: EUR 150 Mio
• Frequence of Visitors: 500.000 visitors per year

Image Courtesy © Hubert Canet, Balloïde Photo

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.

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.

Image Courtesy © Markus Pillhofer

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.

Image Courtesy © Markus Pillhofer

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.

Image Courtesy © Markus Pillhofer

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.

Image Courtesy © Markus Pillhofer

Image Courtesy © Markus Pillhofer

Image Courtesy © Markus Pillhofer

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Image Courtesy © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Tags: France, Lyon

Category: development

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