Coop Himmelb(l)au, Musée des Confluences, Lyon

Since the end of the 20th century, an unprecedented
number of remarkable museums have
been built. None have had bigger worldwide implications
than Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum
in Bilbao (1991-97). Until, that is, the new
Musée des Confluences in Lyon was opened
to the public, in late 2014. It was created by
Wolf D. Prix of the Coop Himmelb(l)au team,
which was founded in the 1970s. Many avantgarde
groups from those wild years - such as
Archigram, Superstudio, Archizoom, Haus-Rucker-
Co, and the Japanese Metabolists - are
now consigned to the past, but the Coop Himmelb(
l)au architecture firm, whose special aspiration
was always to bring into the world buildings
that overcome the pull of the earth - buildings
"to float on the horizon like clouds" - is
more in demand than ever.
The finest demonstration of this endeavour to
date can now be admired in Lyon. Functioning
as a museum of human history, this impressive
concrete, metal and glass colossus truly does
appear to float abovethe peninsula at the confluence
of the Rhône and the Saône. Like the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, this new building,
so impossible to overlook, is an inspiration
for the revitalisation of disrupted urban areas and
the valorisation of derelict industrial areas - within
the city precincts, but also far beyond Lyon.
This Opus volume deals with the origins, construction,
function and formal appearance of the
Musée des Confluences, and also offers a preliminary
theoretically based evaluation of the architecture
of the building.
Frank R. Werner was professor of history and
architecture theory at the Staatliche Akademie
der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart from 1990 until
1994 and director of the Institut für Architekturgeschichte
und Architekturtheorie at the Bergische
Universität in Wuppertal from 1993 until his retirement
in 2012. He studied painting, architecture
and history of architecture in Mainz, Hanover and
Stuttgart. Christian Richters studied