Building at a confluence
The Musée des Confluences opened in Lyon in December 2014. Its architectural design is by the Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. The museum occupies the southern tip of the Presqu’île, where the Rhône and Saône meet, within the wider redevelopment of the Confluence district.
A broad museum programme
The stainless-steel-and-glass building houses natural science and anthropology collections. Its permanent exhibition themes address origins, relationships between species, human societies and mortality. The building therefore brings several kinds of inquiry into one institution rather than serving a single artistic medium.
Reading the architecture
The contrast between a strongly expressed exterior and a wide-ranging exhibition programme is a productive starting point for study. Follow how arrival, orientation and movement connect the building with its riverside setting and collections. An exterior photograph can establish a silhouette, but it cannot demonstrate how comfortably that sequence works for a visitor. Read the museum through plans and exhibition spaces as well as its striking form.