Mar 17, 20213 min read

Jean Nouvel- artist research

Jean Nouvel is a renowned French architect. His style is constantly changing and adapting to the place it is in. In the interviews I have seen Nouvel makes it clear that the geographical, and historical condition of the plot he’s building on is paramount. He produces work that is connected to the place, a building that the locals will understand and connect with, a great example of that would be either his Louvre at Abu Dhabi, or his Doha High rise tower in Qatar. Both projects respect the Islamic architecture and have large central domes which are carefully designed to also be light and temperature controllers, which is essential with the hot temperatures in those regions. Jean doesn’t have a staple material I would say, but there are common materials like steel and glass, but because he’s always adapting to the place so does his choice of material. Like most architects Nouvel also uses light a lot, but one thing that I think stands out is the way he builds his outer walls so that he can control it, a prime example of that would be his Arab World Institute that has these cameras like diaphragm that can open and close to choose the amount of light that gets through. His process is also quite unique, he waits as long as possible before getting something down on paper and wants to be able to describe his building as much as possible without having a visual to accompany it. All that process comes down to Nouvel wanting to tell a story, and so a story is written before the visuals are created. What Nouvel wants to do with his architectures is to give pleasure to others, he says he is a hedonist himself (a pleasure seeker) and that can arguably be seen through his architecture, it’s definitely very aesthetic but it’s also functional. If I was to give an overview of his design philosophy, I would say it is design rooted in geographical and historical context, that seeks to speak to a specific audience, but be beautiful to the largest possible audience. His approach can be both beneficial or detrimental, I think it’s beneficial in terms of the customer and that specific local audience but can be detrimental to the ones who do not have or understand the context behind it, it can be alienating to some, I think. I however believe that Jean has perfectioned his approach to the point where it is never really detrimental. His works is maybe often controversial, but it is often the most controversial architects that really make the field evolve. I personally quite love his body of work, there are definitely projects here and there that I do not find appealing like the Torre Agbar in Barcelona or La Marseillaise in Marseille. But there’s also those projects I deeply love like the Abu Dhabi Louvre, The National Museum of Qatar, Hekla (France) and my favourite being the project that nearly bleed him, the project full of fines and court orders that is the Philharmonie de Paris it is also the only building I’ve visited in person from the list. What I especially like and the reason I chose him as one of my artists is because he has so much variety, all his projects offer new concept, technology and stories, which make researching him very satisfying. An architect I would compare him with would be Frank Gehry, I would argue both are “starchitect” and have controversial work, however Nouvel is ever-changing in contrast to Gehry who tries to convey movement in most of his project. What I learned and will apply to my project is the context, a building’s concept is so much richer when the geography and history is taken in account. Now I don’t know how applicable that will be for me, because I don’t envision developing my project from just a specific place like a traditional architect is given his plot, but I think if I’m able to locate it in more general context like choosing what country/ city it is in will allow me to do that to a certain extent. Creating just a general project that isn’t tied to any place will make the project weaker, I think. I also really like his want to give back, and please the viewers, I’d like to do that as well, I believe architecture is meant to give back to people in whatever way, not merely be a means of shelter.

Arab World Institute- 1987