Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel made his breakthrough with the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, whose façade has thousands of light-sensitive apertures that open and close. His buildings, from the Louvre Abu Dhabi to the Philharmonie de Paris, look for a new form every time.
Jean Nouvel was born in 1945 in Fumel in south-western France. His parents were teachers. He wanted to be an artist but studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He worked for the architect Claude Parent and the theorist Paul Virilio and opened his own office in 1970. He was a co-founder of the Mars 1976 movement and of the architects’ union, the Syndicat de l’Architecture, and he took part in the debate about architecture and society.
The Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, opened in 1987, has a south façade with thousands of metal apertures that open and close according to the light, like a modern Arab latticework. It made him internationally known. He built the Fondation Cartier in Paris, with glass screens that blur the boundary between building and garden, and the Torre Agbar in Barcelona. The Musée du quai Branly in Paris has a wall of plants, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi a dome of patterns that filters the light. He has also designed the concert hall in Copenhagen, DR Koncerthuset, and the Philharmonie de Paris.
Nouvel received the Pritzker Prize in 2008. He stresses that each building must be a response to its site, and so his work has no unified style. The Philharmonie de Paris was delayed and expensive, and for a time he distanced himself from the result. He is regarded as one of France’s most important architects and has also left his mark on the Nordic countries with the concert hall in Copenhagen.