HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the
École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...
in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and '' Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the
Aga Khan Award for Architecture The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the field ...
(for the
Institut du Monde Arabe The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural ...
which Nouvel designed), the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the
Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...
in 2008. A number of museums and architectural centres have presented retrospectives of his work.


Family and education

Nouvel was born on 12 August 1945 in Fumel, France. He is the son of Renée and Roger Nouvel, who were teachers. When his father became the county's chief school superintendent, his family moved often. His parents encouraged Nouvel to study mathematics and language but when he was 16 years old he was captivated by art when a teacher taught him drawing. Although he later said he thought that his parents were guiding him to pursue a career in education or engineering, the family reached a compromise: he could study architecture, which they thought was less risky, as a profession, than art. When Nouvel failed an entrance examination at the École des Beaux-Arts of
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
, he moved to Paris, where he won first prize in a national competition to attend the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...
. From 1967 to 1970, he earned his income as an assistant to architects Claude Parent and
Paul Virilio Paul Virilio (; 4 January 1932 – 10 September 2018) was a French cultural theorist, urbanist, architect and aesthetic philosopher. He is best known for his writings about technology as it has developed in relation to speed and power, with dive ...
, who, after only one year, made him a project manager in charge of building a large apartment complex. Nouvel and the filmmaker Odile Fillion have two sons: Bertrand, a post-doctorate computer scientist working at Mindstorm Multitouch in London, and Pierre, a theater producer and designer at his company, Factoid. With his second wife, Catherine Richard, Nouvel has a daughter, Sarah. His third wife, Lida Guan, is a Chinese architect who worked with Nouvel. He is currently living with Mia Hägg, a Swedish architect whose practice, Habiter Autrement (HA), is based in Paris.


Practice

By age 25, Nouvel completed school and entered into his own partnership with François Seigneur. Early in his career, Nouvel became a key participant in intellectual debates about architecture in France: in 1976, he co-founded the ''Mars 1976'' movement, a backlash against corporatism in architecture, and, a year later, the '' Syndicat de l'Architecture''. For 15 years, he designed exhibits for the Biennale de Paris, where he made contacts in the arts and theater. Nouvel was one of the organizers of the competition for the rejuvenation of the
Les Halles Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on January 12, 1973, after which it was "left to the demolition men who will knock down the last three of the eight iron-and-glass pavilions""Les Halles Dead at 200 ...
district (1977) and, in 1980, founded the first Paris architecture biennale. In 1981, Nouvel, together with Architecture-Studio, won the design competition for the
Institut du Monde Arabe The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural ...
(Arab World Institute) building in Paris, whose construction was completed in 1987 and brought Nouvel international fame. Mechanical lenses reminiscent of Arabic
latticework __NOTOC__ Latticework is an openwork framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a grid or weave. Latticework may be functional &nda ...
in its south wall open and shut automatically, controlling interior lighting as the lenses' photoelectric cells respond to exterior light levels. Nouvel had three different partners between 1972 and 1984: Gilbert Lezenes, Jean-François Guyot, and Pierre Soria. In 1985, with his junior architects Emmanuel Blamont, Jean-Marc Ibos and Mirto Vitart, he founded Jean Nouvel et Associés. Then, with Emmanuel Gattani, he formed JNEC in 1988. In 1994, he founded Ateliers Jean Nouvel, his present practice, with Michel Pélissié. Today, it is one of the largest architectural practices in France. Its main office in Paris employs 140 people. In addition, Ateliers Jean Nouvel has site offices in Rome, Geneva, Madrid, and Barcelona. The company is working on 30 active projects in 13 countries. As well, Nouvel designed a flacon for ''L'Homme'', an Yves Saint Laurent fragrance, in a limited edition launched in 2008. In 2012, he designed the So So collection for American furniture manufacturer Emeco.


Pritzker Prize

Nouvel was awarded the
Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...
, architecture's highest honour, in 2008, for his work on more than 200 projects, among them, in the words of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the "exotically louvered" Arab World Institute, the bullet-shaped and "candy-colored" Torre Agbar in Barcelona, the "muscular"
Guthrie Theater The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...
with its cantilevered bridge in Minneapolis, and in Paris, the "defiant, mysterious, and wildly eccentric" Musée du quai Branly (2006) and the ''Philharmonie de Paris'' (a "trip into the unknown" c. 2012). Pritzker points to several more major works: in Europe, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art (1994), the Culture and Convention Center in
Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...
(2000), the
Opéra Nouvel The Opéra Nouvel (Nouvel Opera House) in Lyon, France, is the home of the Opéra National de Lyon. The original opera house was re-designed by the distinguished French architect, Jean Nouvel between 1985 and 1993 in association with the agency o ...
in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
(1993), Expo 2002 in Switzerland and, under construction, the Copenhagen Concert Hall and the courthouse in
Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
(2000); as well as two tall towers in planning in North America, ''Tour Verre'' in New York City and a cancelled condominium tower in Los Angeles. In its citation, the jury of the Pritzker prize noted:
Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field. ..The jury acknowledged the 'persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation' as qualities abundant in Nouvel's work.


Architectural style

In its biographical sketch of Nouvel, the Pritzker site quotes Bill Lacy's One Hundred Contemporary Architects: "Since the beginning of his architectural career in the 1970s, ouvelhas broken the aesthetic of modernism and post-modernism to create a stylistic language all his own. He places enormous importance on designing a building harmonious with its surroundings." "I am often presented as an architect of ‘French high tech,’" Nouvel said, in a talk he gave in Milan in April 1995. "I would like to begin by explaining what I mean by the term modernity: Modernity is alive, it is not some historical movement that was interrupted a few decades ago. Modernity is making the best use of our memory and moving ahead as fast as we can in terms of development." Writing in
The Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...
, Andrew Ayers quoted Nouvel's 1980 aperçu, "The future of architecture is no longer architectural," by which the architect meant that "rather than remaining a closed discipline, as it seemed to be in the technocratic France of the time, ‘architecture needed to seek its sources in the culture of today, in other disciplines’, and fully embrace the nature of the society of which it was the ultimate expression." Noting cinema's influence on Nouvel as well as the architect's affinity for postmodern philosophy, he added, "At its best, when ouveldoesn’t overdo it, his is an approach that can enchant with its theatrical blurring of boundaries, its poetic feeling for atmosphere and its light-hearted play with signs and signifiers: the winking mechanical mashrabiyas of the Institut du Monde Arabe, the tree-filled mise en abyme of the crystalline Fondation Cartier, or the pluie de lumière that filters through the intricate metal-mesh dome of the Louvre Abu Dhabi." Ayers, Andrew (November 2, 2018)
"Jean Nouvel (1945-)"
''
The Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...
''. Retrieved September 5, 2022
"At his boldest, Nouvel is at the edge of what" the postmodern philosopher and media theorist
Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as ...
"called 'the sparkle and violence of American cities,'" wrote Amelia Stein, in
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
. "Both critics and admirers have commented that he eschews a formal language and, in a 2008 profile, the New York Times wrote that Nouvel’s work lacks even a 'readily apparent common sensibility.' 'They’re very right to say that,' Nouvel says, with quiet intensity, then a smile. 'I’m very proud of that. I’m not a painter or a writer; I don’t work in my room, I work in different cities with different people. I’m more akin to a movie-maker who makes movies on completely different subjects. To reduce style to the adoption of a formal language is such a short-sighted vision that if anybody is reproaching me for this, I would reproach their reproach.'” Stein, Amelia (May 15, 2015)
"Jean Nouvel: 'Architecture is still an art, sometimes'"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
''. Retrieved September 5, 2022


Projects

Nouvel has designed a number of notable buildings across the world, the most significant of which are listed below. As part of the announcement of Nouvel's Pritzker Prize, the Hyatt Foundation, which awards the prize, published a full illustrated list of Nouvel's architectural work, including projects which were never built, projects in construction, and designs for which construction has yet to start. In 2001, the director Beat Kuert filmed a documentary about five of Nouvel's projects, titled ''Jean Nouvel''.


Notable works

* 1987 – Nemausus 1 (Housing, 114 apartments),
Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of ...
, France * 1987 – Arab World Institute (together with Architecture-Studio), Paris, France * 1994 – Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain (Office / Cultural), Paris, France * 1995 –
Euralille Euralille is an urban quarter in the centre of Lille, France. Conceived as a major European business district in the 1980s, it is strategically located at the intersection of the high-speed railway lines linking Paris, Brussels, and London, and ...
, (Retail / Office / Housing), Lille, France * 2000 – Culture and Convention Center (Performance Space / Conference Hall / Museum / Restaurant), Lucerne, Switzerland * 2000 – Palais de Justice, Nantes, France * 2001 – Golden Angel (Zlatý Anděl), Prague, Czech Republic * 2002 – Monolith of Expo.02, Murten, Switzerland * 2004 – Torre Agbar (Office), Barcelona, Spain * 2004 – Museum Two, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea * 2005 –
Reina Sofía Museum Reina (the Spanish word for queen) or La Reina may refer to: Geography * Reina, Badajoz, a municipality in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain * Reina, Estonia, a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, Estonia * La Reina, a commune ...
expansion, Madrid, Spain * 2006 – Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France * 2006 –
Guthrie Theater The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...
, Minneapolis, MN, USA * 2009 – Copenhagen Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark * 2010 –
100 Eleventh Avenue 100 Eleventh Avenue is a 23-story residential tower at the intersection of 19th Street and Eleventh Avenue (the West Side Highway) in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, New York. The building is described as "a vision machine"Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery ...
temporary pavilion, London * 2010 – One New Change, London * 2011 –
Tower 25 Tower 25 (also called The White Walls) is a high-rise building located in the centre of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. It was designed by the architect Jean Nouvel and is a major addition to Nicosia's landmarks owing to its original design and l ...
in Nicosia * 2012 – Doha Tower skyscraper, Doha, Qatar * 2012 – City Hall, Montpellier. * 2015 – Philharmonie de Paris, Paris * 2015 – Tour Bleue,
Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.
* 2016 – Le Nouvel Residences, Kuala Lumpur * 2017 – Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates * 2018 – La Marseillaise, Marseille, France * 2019 – National Museum of Qatar, Doha, Qatar * 2022 - Cidade Matarazzo Rosewood Hotel, São Paulo, Brazil


Under construction

* The Sharaan resort in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Arab ...
to be carved into a
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...
hill in the
AlUla The alula , or bastard wing, (plural ''alulae'') is a small projection on the anterior edge of the wing of modern birds and a few non-avian dinosaurs. The word is Latin and means "winglet"; it is the diminutive of ''ala'', meaning "wing". The al ...
desert. * The
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
redevelopment plan in Sydney will see 11 new buildings in partnership with architects such as Norman Foster to recreate an abandoned brewery occupying almost four inner-city blocks. Nouvel's 120-meter One Central Park is his first project in Australia, and will feature a cantilevered mirror hanging over the central square off of the side of the building. * The Stelios Ioannou Learning Resource Center is an under construction project for the University of Cyprus in
Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaori ...
. The project is expected to be completed in 2019. * In November 2006, Hines commissioned Nouvel to build a new 82-story tower, named first the Tour de Verre, later to become
53W53 53 West 53 (also known as 53W53 and formerly known as Tower Verre) is a supertall skyscraper at 53 West 53rd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It was developed by the re ...
, next to the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
in Midtown Manhattan. The supertall tower, which topped out in 2018, contains luxury apartments; three floors (2nd, 4th, and 5th) are used by MoMA, expanding its exhibition space. At 1,050 feet tall, it ties with the New York Times building and the Chrysler Building, noted Curbed, as the city’s sixth tallest building.


Proposed

* Nouvel is one of the architects involved in the designing of the new Slussen in Stockholm. * In February 2008, Nouvel agreed to design a 45-story luxury condo tower in upscale Century City section of Los Angeles. The tower will be of modern design—it is designed to maximize views of the Los Angeles Country Club from the units and is opposed by both homeowners associations in Beverly Hills for the shadows it will cast on many small homes and its next door neighbor, Beverly Hills High School.


Abandoned projects

* 1989 – The ''
Tour Sans Fins The Tour Sans Fins (“Endless Tower”) was a tower planned in La Défense that has since been cancelled. The spelling ''Tour Sans Fins'' may, to a native French-speaker, sound like a grammatical mistake as it would normally be written ''Tour Sa ...
'' (Office/High-Rise) at
La Défense La Défense () is a major business district in France, located west of the city limits of Paris. It is part of the Paris metropolitan area in the Île-de-France region, located in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbev ...
, France, was never realized. Nouvel's winning design, proposed as Europe's tallest building in 1989, was to change ground up from granite, followed by aluminum, stainless steel and finally glass—"increasingly diaphanous before disappearing into the sky". * 2003 – The '' Carnegie Science Center'' addition by Nouvel in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
was never realized. Nouvel's winning design ended up being too expensive and Nouvel's contract was terminated by the Carnegie Science Center, citing a "dramatic difference between the budget for the project and the estimated cost." * On Tuesday 27 May 2008 Nouvel's design won the contest for the upcoming Tour Signal in
La Défense La Défense () is a major business district in France, located west of the city limits of Paris. It is part of the Paris metropolitan area in the Île-de-France region, located in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbev ...
.


Awards and honors

Nouvel and the buildings which he designed have received a number of distinctions during his career, the most prestigious of which are listed below.


Individual distinctions

* Honorary degrees from the
University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most presti ...
(1983), the
Royal College of Art, London The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It ...
(2002) and the University of Naples (2002)..
shorter version in English
is also available.
* Honorary fellow of the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to s ...
(1993) and of the
Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...
(1995). * In 1997, Nouvel was named Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He first joined the order in 1983. He is also
Chevalier de la légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...
. * 2005 – Wolf Prize in Arts * 2008 –
Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...


Distinctions for projects

* 1989
Aga Khan Award for Architecture The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the field ...
for the
Institut du Monde Arabe The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural ...
. In 1987, the building also won the Équerre d'Argent awarded yearly to the best building in France. * 2010 ''Wallpaper* Magazine'' Design Award, Best new public house category for Copenhagen Concert Hall


Retrospectives

* 2001 – Centre Pompidou, Paris * 2005 – Louisiana Museum of Modern Art


References


External links

*
Jean Nouvel
biography and works


Buildings by Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel Architecture on Google maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nouvel, Jean 1945 births Living people People from Lot-et-Garonne École des Beaux-Arts alumni 20th-century French architects 21st-century French architects Skyscraper architects Theatre architects Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Wolf Prize in Arts laureates Members of the Académie d'architecture Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres