Nouvel, Jean << noo vehl, zhahn >> (1945–…), is an important French architect. Nouvel is not known for any particular style. His projects are based on detailed research into the cultural and social background of the area where a structure is to be built. Nouvel said that he wants his architecture to reflect “the modernity of our epoch as opposed to the rethinking of historical references,” and to incorporate “our techniques and materials, what we are capable of doing.” In 2008, Nouvel was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious international award in architecture. In its citation, the Pritzker committee praised Nouvel for his “persistence, imagination, exuberance and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation.”
Nouvel first gained international recognition in 1987 for his Arab World Institute in Paris. The design skillfully blended traditional Middle Eastern themes with modern technology. In a large glass wall, Nouvel incorporated solar-activated circular shutters that open and close in response to sunlight levels while also resembling the perforated grills used in Muslim architecture. Nouvel gained praise in the United States for his design for the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, completed in 2006. The project was inspired by the giant grain silos and flour mills built along the Mississippi River.
Nouvel’s other major projects include the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art (1994) in Paris; the Palace of Justice (2000) in Nantes, France; the Culture and Convention Center (2000) in Lucerne, Switzerland; the Gasometer project, a gas storage tank converted to housing (2001) in Vienna, Austria; the Agbar Tower office skyscraper (2005) in Barcelona, Spain; the Quai Branly Museum (2006) in Paris; 40 Mercer (2007), a 15-story residential building in New York City; the Copenhagen Concert Hall (2009) in Denmark; a pavilion (2011) to house an antique carousel near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City; and the Paris Philharmonic arts center (2012) in Paris. Nouvel also designed a branch of the Louvre art museum (2017), the Louvre Abu Dhabi, built on an island in the United Arab Emirates as part of a project called the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island.
Nouvel was born on Aug. 12, 1945, in Fumel, in southeastern France. He received a degree from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1972.
