Society and the Arts

Building Moments; Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel on his battle to reshape a world of cities
that all look the same.

Cathleen McGuigan
824 mots
7 avril 2008
Newsweek International
April 7, 2008; ; International Edition
0
Volume 151, Number 14, ISSN 0163-7053
Anglais
Copyright (C) 2008 Newsweek Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Jean Nouvel, 62, is the 2008 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, only the second French designer
honored in the 30-year history of the award. The Pritzker jury cited Nouvel’s “persistence, imagination,
exuberance and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation.” His buildings include the
Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris (both opened in 2006)
and future designs for La Philharmonie de Paris, the Tour de Verre in New York and the Louvre Abu
Dhabi. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Cathleen McGuigan. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Congratulations. You don’t have a signature style; each project is unique. Tell me about
your philosophy of design.

Nouvel: When I began to study architecture in the ’60s, I was shocked because I saw a lot of buildings
that were similar all around the world, in the international style [modernism]. They were not linked to the
different cities or to different geographic climates. So very early I had a strong idea about the
relationship between architecture and the situation of the architecture. With the evolution of the world in
the last 40 years, I think it’s worse, worse and worse. When you go around the world, all the cities are
the same. So I always work on the question of identity—linking the architecture to the cultural identity of
the city, the climate, the vegetation, as well as to poetic and historical things. For these reasons, my
buildings generally never use the same vocabulary, the same colors or the same materials. But, of
course, I have some permanent values, such as the epoch, the time we are living today. Architecture is
a petrification of a moment of culture. That is my definition of architecture.

You’ve built many projects in Europe but now you’re also designing in the Middle East.

Yes, I am working on the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and it is really a very good situation. It is part of a cultural
neighborhood, on an island, along with projects by Frank Gehry, who is doing the Guggenheim there,
and also projects by Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando.

What kind of inspiration do you take from the geography and climate in Abu Dhabi?

I began to create a microclimate, to cover a large area [with an immense canopy], with the water, the
sea, coming in, and the landscape. Then there are a lot of white buildings. For me, a museum is part of
a city—the art should be part of a city—not just a building with an entrance that you go through, but
open. It’s important that you can go to the bar or the restaurant, or the promenade—and not have to pay
to enter.

The idea of public space is an idea we’re losing in cities. Here you’re building in the Middle East where
the climate is so hot it is difficult to go outside.

For this reason, I am creating a strong landscape with trees, and creating this cover, with great shadows
above the building. Also you have the freshness of the water—it’s an island on the sea—and the
microclimate.

When you think about your buildings in other parts of the world, do you also think about the public
space?

Of course, the public space is part of the initial strategy. For example, in Lucerne, when I created the
concert hall [which opened in 2000] and the Museum of Contemporary Art [which opened in 2002], I
began to create a covered square because in Lucerne, it is snowy and rainy. The covered square was
the beginning of a very popular place because it is comfortable there.

2008 Factiva, Inc. Tous droits réservés.

In every place I try to do that. In the Quai Branly museum, I created a public park and put the museum in
the middle. If you look at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, I created a strong link with the park along
the Mississippi River and the view of the waterfalls—and with a public terrace and the restaurant. It’s
very important to create a desire for the inhabitants of the city to go to a place like that and enjoy it.

Clearly, you were inspired by the Mississippi. When we spoke at the time the Guthrie opened, I asked if
you knew the song, “Old Man River,” and you immediately began to sing it!

(Laughs)

You’re very busy these days. What about the 75-story tower, the Tour de Verre, you’re building next to
the Museum of Modern Art in New York?

I am very excited by that. Manhattan is a vertical city and to create the spirit of the skyscraper there is to
put another piece in a historical city. It is a dream project for an architect.

Document NEWI000020080401e4470000d

2008 Factiva, Inc. Tous droits réservés.