Jean Nouvel Architect, French Architecture

Jean Nouvel Architect France, Paris Building Projects Photos, French Design Studio News

Jean Nouvel Architects : Architecture

AJN: Contemporary French Architecture Practice – architect studio based in Paris

post updated 6 September 2021

Ateliers Jean Nouvel News

Architecture News – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:

6 Sep 2021
HEKLA, La Défense, Paris, France
HEKLA Building, Paris La Défense Tower by Jean Nouvel Architect
image © Ateliers Jean Nouvel
HEKLA Building, Paris La Défense Tower
HEKLA is the culmination of close collaboration between Ateliers Jean Nouvel for their talent and creativity, Hines and AG Real Estate for their experience in major commercial real estate projects, and Amundi Immobilier and Primonial REIM for their confidence and investment in the development of this emblematic project, alongside Bateg, a subsidiary of VINCI Construction France, the world’s leading construction firm.

1 Oct 2013
Burj Qatar, Doha, Qatar
Design: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Burj Qatar tower building design by Jean Nouvel architect
photo : CSCEC
The building envelope consists of two layers, a metal brise-soleil with an aluminium-and-glass curtain wall behind. The outer layer is inspired by “mashrabiya” screens found in traditional Islamic architecture, and which serve to protect from the sun’s heat and glare, and grant privacy.

1 Oct + 17 Sep 2013
Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel, Spain
Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel design by Jean Nouvel Architect
photo © Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Emporis Skyscraper Award 2012 shortlisted

11 Apr 2013
Office for Living, Workplace Concept
Office for Living design by Jean Nouvel Architect
image from architects
Office for Living
Jean Nouvel’s response to Cosmit’s commission for a huge project, tailored specifically to the Saloni and documenting the tremendous changes that have changed the face of living and work spaces alike over the past few years is “a project that frees up the office space, a counter to urban segregation and the zoning of other specially dedicated workplaces.”

19 Oct 2012
CTBUH Best Tall Building Worldwide 2012 – winner news – Doha Tower, Qatar
Doha Tower
image Courtesy Ateliers Jean Nouvel (AJN)
CTBUH Best Tall Building Worldwide
This building design by French architect Jean Nouvel, was named Best Tall Building Worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Doha Tower, which was first named the Best Tall Building in the Middle East and Africa, took the overall award out of the four regional winners. The building was honored for incorporating elements of traditional regional design with modern technologies to create an environmentally-sensitive icon for Qatar’s capital.

22 + 18 May 2012
Duo Towers, Paris, France
DUO project Paris
image © Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Duo Towers
Jean Nouvel will build the ‘Duo’ project on the Rive Gauche in Paris. The DUO project (‘B3A’) is located in Paris XIII (Masséna Bruneseau) for investor Ivanhoé Cambridge Hines the total cost is projected to be 500/600M€.

Ateliers Jean Nouvel – Recent Designs

26 Jan 2012
Tour Horizons, Paris, France
Tour Horizons Building by Jean Nouvel Architect
image © AJN
Tour Horizons
Tower building located in ZAC Seguin rive de Seine, Boulogne-Billancourt.

20 Jul 2011
Fondation Imagine, Paris, France
Ateliers Jean Nouvel / Valero Gadan
Fondation Imagine Paris by Jean Nouvel Architect
image © AJN / Valero Gadan
Fondation Imagine Paris

20 Jul 2011
RBC Design Center, Montpellier, France
RBC Design Center Montpellier by Jean Nouvel Architect
image © AJN
RBC Design Center

19 Jul 2011
Bruxelles Gare du Midi, Belgium
Midi Station Brussels
image from AJN
Bruxelles Gare du Midi

13 Jun 2011
Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France – photos added
Musée du quai Branly Paris by Jean Nouvel Architect
image © Rebecca Breun
Musée du quai Branly

30 Mar 2011
Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom, Austria – added
Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom
image : Philippe Ruault
Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom
Architecture is the art of taming constraints ; of poetizing contradictions ; of looking differently at common and trivial things in order to reveal their singularity. Architecture is an opportunity, in a city marked by history, to continue games begun by others years or centuries ago. It is a clever game of chance and intention ; an occasion to modify, to deepen, or to change the meaning of a context. Architecture is about making apparitions.

28 Mar 2011
The Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, France – start on site news
Philharmonie de Paris by Jean Nouvel Architect
picture © AJN
Philharmonie de Paris

22 Mar 2011
Concert House Danish Radio Copenhagen
Mies van der Rohe Awards : 2011 Finalist

One New Change, London, England
One New Change by Jean Nouvel Architect
image © Miller Hare Ltd
One New Change Building

15 Oct 2010
Manhattan residential tower
The award-winning French architect is about to leave his mark on the New York City skyline reports CBS.
The first is a residential tower on Manhattan’s West Side, with hundreds of irregularly-placed windows tilted at odd angles. Nouvel personally placed each window in the building. From the outside they’re designed to reflect the sun and the sky…from the inside, to frame the landscape.
“Here, of course, I wanted to catch all the panorama,” Jean said. In one bedroom he positioned a window so it could perfectly frame the Empire State Building: “It’s like a guardian during the night,” he said while reclining on a bed.

MoMA Tower:
MoMA New York tower by Jean Nouvel Architect
image from Jean Nouvel Architects

The other New York project by Nouvel is a building that could rival the Empire State Building, a soaring skyscraper that one critic said “promised to be the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation.”

“I try to play with the idea of a needle,” Jean said.

The tower would be built on a tiny lot next to the Museum of Modern Art. In the original design by AJN, the slender spire would have risen 75 stories, higher than the Chrysler Building and almost tall as the Empire State: “Which is precisely what bothers some people,” said Davidson. “For people who reacted negatively to the tower, it seemed arrogant.”

Community groups fought the project. New York, a city of skyscrapers, seemed to be afraid of heights: is the “building worthy of standing alongside the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building?” Anthony Mason asked. “I think so,” said Davidson. “It marks the period in which it’s being designed so dramatically.”

The architect has faced resistance before. There were questions about his striking Barcelona tower: “Maybe people think I am sexual obsessed with this building!” he laughed. “It’s not the case.” In fact, it was meant to echo the unusual rock pinnacles of nearby Montserrat.

And another Jean Nouvel skyscraper, the so-called “Tower Without End,” was never built, because of a housing slump in the nineties which left his Paris-based studio in bankruptcy. He says it wasn’t discouraging: “No, it’s not in my character.” The City Council finally gave the go-ahead to build – but only if Nouvel chops 200 feet off the top. “It’s very French to cut the head, eh?” Nouvel laughed. “A guillotine!”

So at his Paris studio, Jean has gone back to the drawing board, working on a redesign, while his residential tower opened this summer. “Do you like how it looks now?” he’s asked. “Yeah, I like that. Yes, it’s exactly what we wanted.”

His aim as an architect, Jean Nouvel says, is to give pleasure to people: “I think architecture has to be a gift.”

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London, UK
Serpentine Pavilion 2010
images © AJN
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010

Tour Signal, Paris, France
Tour Signal
image from the architect
Tour Signal building : Temporary suspension of skyscraper design by Jean Nouvel

National Museum of Qatar Building, Qatar
National Museum of Qatar Jean Nouvel
image by Artefactory, © AJN
National Museum of Qatar Design

Pritzker Prize architects : 2008 Pritzker Prize winner

Jean Nouvel Buildings

Featured Buildings, alphabetical:

Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum Building, UAE
2009-
Abu Dhabi Louvre
image courtesy of Gaston Bergeret
Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum Building

Agbar Tower, Barcelona, Spain
2004
Agbar Tower Barcelona
photo © Adrian Welch
Agbar Tower : 142m high skyscraper

DR Byen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2007
Design: AJN + other architects
DR Byen
photo : dragoer luftfoto
DR Byen Copenhagen Building

Fondation Cartier, Paris, France
1995
Design: AJN + Emanuel Cattani et Associés
Fondation Cartier Paris
image © AJN ; photo : Philippe Ruault
Cartier Foundation Paris

Galeries Lafayette, Berlin, Germany
1996
Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Galeries Lafayette Berlin
photo © Adrian Welch
Galeries Lafayette Building

Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, USA
Date built: 1999-2006
Design: Ateliers Jean Nouvel + Architectural Alliance
Guthrie Theatre
photo © AJN ; photograph: Roland Halbe
Guthrie Theatre Minneapolis – no link

Hotel Puerta America, Madrid, Spain
Design: various interiors, various designers
Hotel Puerta America
image from Hotel Puerta America website
Hotel Puerta America

lnstitut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Date built: 1988
lnstitut du Monde Arabe
photo © Jean Nouvel ; photograph: Georges Fessy
Arab du Monde lnstitute Building

KölnTurm, Cologne, Germany
Date built: 2001
Jean Nouvel with Kohl & Kohl Architekten
KölnTurm
photo © webbaviation
Cologne’s second tallest building

40 Mercer, Soho, New York, USA
Date built: 2001-07
Ateliers Jean Nouvel
40 Mercer design by Jean Nouvel Architect
photo © Jean Nouvel ; photo: Philippe Ruault
Soho apartment building for Andres Balazs

MoMA Extension – Tower, Manhattan, USA
2007-
MoMA New York tower design by Jean Nouvel Architect
image from Jean Nouvel Architects
MoMA New York tower : 75 storeys

National Music Centre – Shortlist, Canada
2009-
National Music Centre Calgary design by Jean Nouvel Architect
picture from CMF
Canadian National Music Centre, Calgary

Reina Sofía Extension, Madrid, Spain
Date built: 1999-2005
Design: AJN
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía design by Jean Nouvel Architect
photo © Jean Nouvel ; photo: Philippe Ruault
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Walbrook Square, London, UK
Date: [2006-] Design: Foster & Partners / AJN, Architects
Walbrook Square, The Cloud design by Jean Nouvel Architect
image from Stanhope
Walbrook Square London : abandoned

More architecture projects by architect Jean Nouvel online soon

Location: Paris, France

Paris Architect Practice Information

Jean Nouvel (1945-) was born in Fumel, France

RIBA Gold Medal Winner in 2001.

Background

Architect Jean Nouvel opened his own architecture office in 1975. His architectural break came in 1981 when President Mitterand commenced his Grand Projets – major Parisian buildings – and by 1988 his lnstitut du Monde Arabe was complete. Its facade was unlike anything seen before and catapulted Nouvel into international architect stardom.

The architect:
Jean Nouvel Architect, Paris, France
photo from Hotel Puerta America

Paris architects : Design Studio

The Agbar Tower project in Barcelona reaffirmed his celebrity status once again. The design was compared to Foster & Partners‘ Swiss Re building of course, but in various articles it has been stated by the office of AJN that this is incidental.

Architecture Awards

Grand Prix d’Architecture – 1987
Aga Khan Award for Architecture – 1989
Royal Institute of British Architects: Royal Gold Medal for Architecture – 2001

Jean Nouvel Architect : further information

Jean Nouvel Books

Zlaty Andel building aka The Golden Angel, Prague, Czech Republic

Website: www.jeannouvel.com

French Architectural Designs

French Architecture

French Architects

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