Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France. Architect: Coop Himmelb(l)au, 2014.

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The Musée des Confluences is a science centre and anthropology museum in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, France. It is located at the southern tip of the Presqu'île at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, adjacent to Autoroute A7, and comprises part of a larger redevelopment project of the Confluence quarter of Lyon. The deconstructivist architectural design, said to resemble a floating crystal cloud of stainless steel and glass. was created by the Austrian architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. The entrance building, the so-called Crystal, is openly traversable, and a vertical access to the exhibition spaces. The so-called Espace liant, a connecting path, can be reached by an escalator, a staircase, and a spiral ramp. Left and right of this path are arranged the individual exhibition halls and at the end is a view of the confluence of two rivers, the Pointe du Confluent. The steel structure, conceived as a bridge construction, made it possible to develop all of the exhibition halls without supports. The administration rooms are located above the exhibition spaces. In the Plaza below this highly raised, almost flying component called the "Cloud", the lit wave pattern of the surface of a small lake is reflected on the underside of the building. A brasserie emphasizes the public nature of this place. A freely accessible terrace café is located on the top floor. In the entrance building, a drop-shaped construction serves as supporting structure. Its form was developed out of the turbulent flow created by the confluence of the two streams. This gravity well reduces the weight of the entire steel structure of the entrance building by a third.