Zigzag

Figure of French architecture, Dominique Perrault gained international recognition after having won the competition for the National French library in 1989 at the age of 36. This project marked the starting point of many other public and private commissions abroad, such as The Velodrome and Olympic swimming pool of Berlin (1992), the extension of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in (1996), the Olympic tennis centre in Madrid (2002), the campus of Ewha’s University in Seoul (2004) and the Fukoku Tower in Osaka, Japan (2010). Ongoing projects include works as the Piazza Garibaldi in Naples, the congress and exhibition hall of Leon in Spain, the DC towers in Vienna, Austria, the rehabilitation / extension of the former mechanical engineering halls and the central library and the construction of the Teaching Bridge of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as the Grand Theater in Albi and the Dobrée Museum in Nantes, France. For Dominique Perrault, the relentless transformation of the territories has resulted in an increase in their complexity, their differences and density. The new concept of territory can no longer be satisfied with a definition of one architecture, circumscribed by the summarized terminology of “wall”, “door”, façade” and “roof”. Architecture should be instead conceived as an integral part of the landscape. Glass, concrete or metal would in this case no longer be the elements that build architecture, but the territory as it exists, as we relate to it. As his approach is to transform the landscape and territories, Dominique Perrault’s work as an architect is strictly related to his role as an urban planner. His urban studies in France and abroad help describe the continuity and consistency of his method: the development of the Garonne river banks in Bordeaux and in Ile de Nantes, the business district in Pudong in Shanghai, China (1992), the UNIMETAL site in Caen (1994), the Donau City center, the Danube river bank in Vienna, Austria (2002) the construction of the new European neighborhood and business center in Sofia, Bulgaria and the new FSS train station district in Locarno and the Switzerland (2009). Perrault, member of the Grand Paris scientific council, was appointed curator of the French Pavilion in the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice (2010), being the subject of the installation METROPOLIS ?. Dominique Perrault received many prestigious prizes and awards, including the AFEX Award for the Ewha Womans University in Korea and the “Grande Médaille d’or d’Architecture” from the Académie d’Architecture in 2010, the Mies van der Rohe prize (1997), the French national Grand Prize for Architecture (1993) and the Equerre d’argent prize for the Hotel Industriel Berlier (1989). The body of his work was assembled in a monographic exhibition: “Dominique Perrault Architecture” exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2008 and later made and itinerant show that travelled to Madrid (ICO Foundation, 2009) and Tokyo (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, 2010).