Musée des Confluences Opens in Lyon

The €239 million museum of the natural sciences, anthropology, and ethnology is aptly located at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers, a dramatic site that gives provide postcard-like views (above) of what the architects describe as a spaceship-like building. Supplanting the city's Guimet Natural History Museum, the Musée des Confluences holds an astounding 2.2 million artifacts, a small portion of which can be put on display at any given time in the museum's 26,700 square meters (287,400 square feet) of space. Wolf D. Prix, partner at Coop Himmelb(l)au, designed the building with the concept, "the crystal cloud of knowledge." The firm placed the galleries in the primarily opaque "cloud" and the lobby and circulation spaces in the glass-covered "crystal." Exterior spaces below the cloud will connect to a park, also designed by the firm, which will open next year.