Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel started to work for an architect’s studio while he completed his studies at the School of fine Arts in Paris. He became associated with other architects and opened his own studio in 1994.

The common denominator in Nouvel’s work, however varied, is the quest for transparency, a play of light and shadows, together with a harmonious integration with the surroundings.

Novel was awarded the Grand Prize for Architecture of France for his entire work, of which we may highlight projects such as the Institute of the Arab World in Paris, the Surgical Centre at Val Notre-Dame de Bezons, the Opera in Lyon, the Lafayette Gallery in Berlin and, more recently, the extension to the National Museum Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Agbar Tower in Barcelona.

Ateliers Jean Nouvel [www]

 

Proposta para a Cidade da Cultura

 

An indelible footprint, inscribed on the ground. Stone, hardness... something to last, for a long, long time. A linear, dynamic footprint, as a line drawn into a trail.

A trail of light crosses and perforates the enigmatic, mysterious relief. Symbol of the future, of a confrontation between light and matter, generally matter to light. Here matter is perforated by light, it is the meeting point for extremes, mass and evanescence, thickness and fineness, shadow and light, the invisible and the visible, opacity and transparency, the hidden and the exposed, disappearance and appearance. For all these fragile reasons it becomes an inscription of culture.

On this line the footsteps take hold, succeeding one another in time. On this rut of light culture takes root and develops into rhythms and programmes that only history may define: libraries, museums, music auditoriums, theatres… But they shall also be places for tomorrow.