Working with long-time collaborator Frank Gehry, we joined with Panamanian and world citizens to create a new kind of museum: the Panama Museum of Biodiversity Puente de Vida (“Bridge of Life”). Located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal, the museum is a portal to the richest and most diverse ecosphere on earth. 

Bruce Mau Design collaborated with Gehry Partners and an exceptional team of scientists and civic leaders on all aspects of the museum’s design, from its early conceptual model through the content and design of its various exhibitions. The Puente de Vida inverts the typical museum visitor’s experience. Instead of pushing information, the museum allows visitors to be pulled into understanding as they follow a thematic path. The exhibits go beyond the mere illustration of ideas to become functional models whose effects bridge art and science – memorable and accessible embodiments of scientific ideas that we call “Devices of Wonder”. 

The museum inspires as it educates about biodiversity – a complex but essential vision of life that is both a leading-edge scientific theory and a tool to protect our most precious ecological resources.