Confluence Institute | Studio Odile Decq

In times when architectural productions tend to insidiously all look alike, ignoring cultural, historical or social particularisms, whilst the everyday architectural practice struggles with standards imposed by industrials or politics, and that buildings are dropped indifferently around the globe, schools seem to be the last guarantees of a possible diversity of thoughts, positions and actions.

The objective of this new architectural school is to develop an innovative European training dedicated to the architecture for the XXIst century, based on a radical and progressive way of research, experimentation and transversality.

In terms of architecture, one of the major stakes is to train architect that will be deeply anchored in the contemporary world - a world that is more and more difficult to apprehend, which keys of comprehension are trapped in a range of multiple virtual and trans-disciplinary connexions. To goal is to train architects able to handle with agility the multitude of necessary knowledge, able to work collaboratively, able to apprehend local and global techniques.

In the heart of the new Confluence in Lyon, the School has the ambition to become one of the leadership strength of the area, as much by its singular program as by its architectural identity. The major part of the old market was destroyed to create this new area but few bays remained and it is within 6 of them that the School was settled, rue Paul Montrochet. At the same time new and part of a past that it embodies the rebirth, the re uses of those bays is again a way to anchor the school in the concrete reality of its environment. The 6 bays of the old market are left as raw as possible and symbolize a new written page in the story of these premises.

An architecture in harmony with the teaching skills:

The Confluence Institute is more than a school, it is a dynamic campus:

- that integrates and develops the local and regional university fabric.

- that brings together a student residence, housing for researchers, the school and its partners on one site.

- that superimposes and links pedagogical spaces dedicated to creation, fabrication and connection.

At its center, the Creative Open Space is the place for individual student work. Each student of the school has a dedicated space. The Confluence is the only school in France that offers these individual work conditions to all of its students. On the lower level, the Creative Maker Space is the place for the fabrication of projects conceived in the Creative Open Space. It is equipped with multiple machines such as 2D and 3D digital printers, laser cutters, rapid prototyping machines, robotics, thermoforming machines, etc. Conceived as a laboratory, this space is organized under the direction of a professor accompanied by technicians and student assistants.

The Creative Maker Space is open during the weekends to passionate people from outside the school who realize with students their own objects

The Creative Connective Space is located on the upper level. It is the place for networks and exchanges to and from around the world. This space is also dedicated to the conception and diffusion of productions in the virtual domain of the school: projects, courses, research, conferences, publications, etc. In fact, it is the place where all internal school activities are implemented.

Between the city and the other Creative Spaces, the Creative Urban Space is the forum of the school. A place for exhibitions and large-scale experimentation, a place for debates and critiques, a place for meetings and exchanges, it is also the festive place of the school and its cafe forms the neural center of creations linked to fortuitous meetings.

The synergy generated by the ensemble of these open, articulated and interconnected spaces establishes the Confluence as a campus and a center of research (Creative Research Space).