Jean Nouvel has talked of creating buildings that he hopes will disappear into their surroundings, defy easy characterization, and that will become dated. And yet with today’s announcement by The Hyatt Foundation that this 62-year-old Frenchman is the 2008 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the profession’s highest honor, Nouvel’s oeuvre is certain to invite close study by many generations to come. In fact, contrary to the architect’s own desire, his buildings already stand out.
Many of Nouvel’s more than 200 works are concentrated in France but increasingly they are located around the world. They include a branch of the Louvre Museum at the Saadiyat Cultural District, in Abu Dhabi, expected to open in 2012. It will be covered by a dome-shaped, latticework roof whose filigreed pattern expresses Islamic influences—also evident in Nouvel’s first widely acclaimed building, the Institut du Monde Arabe, opened in Paris in 1987. But any resemblance between it and the Louvre is fleeting. Each of Nouvel’s designs acknowledges a unique context while making use of technologies and materials that are of the moment. If that makes them look dated after a few years, the architect is unconcerned. (to find out more..)
passage from: http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/080331pritzker.asp
image from: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-pritzker31mar31,0,351027.story
posted by afterrabbit
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1 comment:
well it's expected..
Let's guess who'll be the next?
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