Arc | Tavolo

Jean Nouvel has headed his own architectural practice since 1970. For his work he has won, among others, the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture, the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Aga Khan Prize for the Arab World Institute, honorary fellowships in the AIA, France’s National Grand Prize for Architecture. In 2001, Italy’s Borromini Prize for the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center and Japan’s Praemium Imperial Career Prize and in 2005, the Wolf Prize, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in architecture and the International Highrise Award for the Agbar tower in 2006, the Pritzker Prize in 2008. Among Mr. Nouvel’s principal completed buildings are the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Lyon Opera House, the Cartier Foundation in Paris, The Galeries Lafayette department store in Berlin, the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center, the Tours Conference Center, The Hotel in Lucerne, the Andel office building in Prague, the Nantes Justice Center, the Dentsu Tower in Tokyo, the technology center in Wismar, the museum of archaeology in Périgueux, the Agbar office tower in Barcelona, the extension to the Queen Sophia museum in Madrid, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Brembo’s research and development centre, the Richemont Corporation headquarters in Geneva, the swimming pool of Les Bains des docks in Le Havre, the Symphonic House in Copenhagen, an apartment building 40 Mercer street in New York Soho, an apartment building in New York Chelsea, The Ferrari’s factory in Maranello Modena, The Pavilion B in the Fiera di Genova, he was commission to design 10th Serpentine Gallery Pavillion, an office building in the City of London. Among the projects currently under study or construction at Ateliers Jean Nouvel are, The sea center museum in Le Havre, the city hall in Montpellier, an office tower in Doha Qatar, the Theater ”Archipel” in Perpignan, two apartment buildings in Ibiza Spain, an hotel in Barcelona, the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, the Philharmonic Hall in Paris, the Tour de Verre in New York, a mixed use high-rise building in Sydney, The Tour Signal in Paris la Défense, the National Qatar Museum, the Grand Paris with Jean Marie Duthilleul and Michel Cantal-Dupart, and he is also the architect manager of l’île Seguin.

Foster + Partners has always been guided by a belief that the quality of our surroundings has a direct influence on the quality of our lives, whether that is in the workplace, at home or in the public realm. Allied to that is an acknowledgement that architecture is generated by the needs of people - both material and spiritual - and a concern for the physical context and the culture and climate of place. Equally, excellence of design and its successful execution are central to our approach. We believe the best architecture comes from a synthesis of all the elements that separately comprise and inform the character of a building: the structure that holds it up; the services that allow it to function; its ecology; the quality of natural light; the symbolism of the form; the relationship of the building to the skyline or the streetscape; the way you move through or around it; and last but not least its ability to lift the spirits. This holistic approach is augmented by a strong commitment to the clients we serve, and also to the public domain and the many users involved. A high degree of personal service, coupled with respect for the precious resources of cost and time, therefore characterises our client relationships. The scale, diversity and global reach of our new projects were unimaginable 40 years ago, yet many of the issues that excited us in the early days continue to inform what we do today. We work in the spirit of enquiry, challenging preconceptions and testing conventions. The process of ‘reinvention’ distinguishes all of our work – past and present – and rests on a duty to design well and to design responsibly – whether that is at the scale of an airport or a door handle. The last decades have witnessed key shifts in public attitudes to ecology and energy consumption. We have always anticipated these trends, pioneering design solutions that use totally renewable sources of energy and offer dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions. Environmental awareness is an integral part of the practice’s culture as it evolves to meet the challenges of the next forty years.