The Confluence is a new institution for architectural education and research in France. Based on an evolving and radical understanding of research, experimentation and trans-disciplinary, the confluence is: open, alternative, international, collaborative and innovative. It proposes: - to construct an unparalleled understanding of architecture at the intersection of disciplines, - to cross prospective and experimental visions, - to create an appetite for engagement, - to generate unforeseen alternatives, - to resist the uniformity of production and imposed standards, - to question and go beyond the implicit limits of architecture The Confluence is anchored in the economy of the world, is a site of synergies, a site of hybridization. Architects, critics, artists, thinkers, philosophers, film-makers, scientists, engineers and manufacturers work together to share knowledge and discoveries. Without stylistic prejudice or ideology, a diversity of cultures, knowledge and practices makes it possible to develop ideas and projects in order to imagine all that is possible. The teaching of architecture must allow students to confront problems encountered in the world and to use new tools to address them. The Confluence is the site of emerging new relations between systems of thought, modes of construction, aesthetic systems, manufacturing processes and modes of organization. The specificity of the experimentation/creation/research at Confluence is its capacity to bring together prospective visions with their deployment. The convergence of forms of knowledge Different disciplines like physics, biology, neurology and new technologies as well as sociology and the visual arts take part — in an original way — in the elaboration of teaching and contribute to the elaboration of research and new projects. The convergence of conception/production The convergence of difference teaching methods The convergence of local, national and international experiences.