Jean Nouvel, Winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2008
Image Source: Dezeen
On Jun. 2, Nouvel will receive the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor, in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington. The Paris-based architect has won the profession’s highest honor – Pritzker Prize 2008, for a career of memorable buildings. This is undoubtedly Jean Nouvel’s moment, aside from winning the Pritzker, his offices in Paris, New York, London, Copenhagen, Rome, Madrid, and Barcelona are busy with more than 40 active projects in 13 countries (My design lecturer claimed that he has 30 projects in hand, and I would assume that he has about 15 – 25 staffs, probably more, Jean Nouvel has something to learn from him).
Jean Nouvel’s structures bear no signature style, unlike Frank Gehry and his curved walls; Jean Nouvel has to constantly re-invent himself instead of relying on a single award winning style, which is what most architects does.
Jean Nouvel (Icon Magazine) and Dr.Evil (Right). Image Source: Dezeen
Anyway, does Jean Nouvel resemble the movie character Dr.Evil from Austin Power? Probably it is just me. Here is a summary of his family and education background:
Nouvel was born August 12, 1945 in Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne, France, the son of Renée and Roger Nouvel who were teachers. His family moved often when his father became the county’s chief school superintendent. His parents encouraged Nouvel to study mathematics and language, but when he was 16 years old he was captivated by art when a teacher taught him drawing. Although his later said he thought that his parents were guiding him to pursue a career in education or engineering, the family reached a compromise that he could study architecture which they thought was less risky than art. – Wikipedia
“…they thought was less risky than art…”, I guess lots of parents has this opinion of art as a useless subject, especially Asian parents with their traditional mindset. I’ve always believed that art is the key to man’s salvation.
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Richard Meier, Pritzker Prize 2008
This weeks presentation is on Richard Meier and his Islip Justice Courthouse, there is a short article on Richard Meier in Wikipedia, it appears that Meier also consulted on the design of several buildings that appear in the 2003 city building computer game SimCity 4, making him perhaps the first professional architect ever commissioned to participate in building design for a computer game.
According to an architecture student, “I went to his web site and it seemed like I was looking at a wedding cake catalogue. What’s up with all the – white?”
Yes, white, apparently Richard Meier has this obsession on the colour white, most of his buildings comes with white aluminum panels.
Pritzker Acceptance Speech by Meier:
I would like to share with you, tonight, the ongoing conversation that I have with my children, Joseph and Ana. It revolves around the question “What is your favorite color?” Joseph, who is four and three-quarters, always replies green, and states when asked why, that “green is the color of grass, the trees are green, green is all around us, it’s the color of spring and dollar bills.”
Ana, who is three and doesn’t like to be outdone by Joseph, replies that her favorite color is blue, and that, “the sky is blue, the pools and ponds and lakes are blue.”
And then they turn to me and ask, “Daddy, what is your favorite color?” And every time we play this gave, my response is the same: “White is my favorite color.”
“But Daddy,” Joseph says, “You can’t have white. White is not a color; white isn’t in the rainbow; you have to take a color that is in the rainbow, like red or green, or blue or yellow.”
And I have to explain that for me, white is the most wonderful color because within it you can see all the colors of the rainbow. For me, in fact, it is the color which in natural light, reflects and intensifies the perception of all of the shades of the rainbow, the colors which re constantly changing in nature, for the whiteness of white is never just white; it is almost always transformed by light and that which is changing; the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon.
White conventionally has alwyas been seen as a symbol of perfection, of purity and clarity. If we ask why this is the case, we realize that where other colors have relativevalues dependent upon their context, white retains its absoluteness. At the same time, it may function as a color itself. It is against a white surface that one best appreciates the play of light and shadow, solids and voids. Goethe said “color is the pain of light.” Whiteness is perhaps the memory and the anticipation of color. For me, the contrast becomes the definition — that which is natural, organic, changing, contains at different times, all of the colors of the rainbow. And that which is man-made should help to focus and intensify one’s perception of all that is around us.
It appears that he has found a successful formula and he’s sticking with it, a eventually it becomes his trademark as an architect, pretty much like Frank Gehry has his dynamic architecture, and Tadao Ando and his minimalist architecture.
Tags: Pritzker, Pritzker 2008, pritzker elementary school, pritzker hotel, Pritzker Prize, prix pritzker 2008, Richard Meier, zohar pritzker
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