Orange Cube

The Orange Cube is a design showroom and office building in the La Confluence quarter of the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, France.[1] Designed by the Paris-based architectural firm Jakob + MacFarlane,[2] the building is best known for its orange color and hole-riddled cube shape,[1] lending it the nickname "La Mimolette" after the similarly colored cheese.[3] The Orange Cube was completed in 2011 at a cost of approximately €12 million, with a 6,284 meter interior.[4] It occupies a 29x33 meter area on the ground.[5]

The building is the realization of Jakob + Macfarlane's winning design in a 2005 competition intended to create interest in the industrial Confluence area,[1] one requirement of which was the inclusion of negative space; the building's two conical voids, as well as drawing in cool air, create, according to Architectural Record's Jenna M. McKnight, "an extraordinary dialogue with the river, almost bringing it inside."[6] Others, including Telerama's Luc Le Chatelier and Valérie Disdier of the "Maison de l'architecture Rhône-Alpes" were more critical of the design.[3] The Orange Cube's two facades are covered by twenty-five perforated, thermo-lacquered aluminum screens, all made locally.[4]