10 buildings about our historical memory that you should not forget

Rudy Ricciotti  was born in Kouba ( Algeria), of Italian origin on August 22, 1952 and he moved to France at the age of three. Rudy Ricciotti spent part of his youth in Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. He studied engineering in Switzerland in 1975 and he graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Marseille in 1980.

Rudy Ricciotti represents a generation of architects that combine creative energy and true building culture. Author of large buildings in France, including the National Choreographic Centre of Aix-en-Provence, also gained international renown as the Gate of Peace in Seoul or Nikolaisaal of Potsdam in Germany, the Festival Palace in Venice, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Liège Philharmonic or Gstaad for a Festival created by Yehudi Menuhin.

In 2005, he won the competition for the construction of the library of Rouen. On November 7, 2007, He won the competition organized by the City of Paris for the construction of the new stage of John Bouin2. He was also appointed in 2002 to a flagship project of the second city of France: le Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM) in Marseille, as part of the European Capital of Culture 2013 of the city of Marseille.

He is President Al Dante editions since 2007. Al Dante publishes books (poetry, experimental prose and poetry, theoretical essays, catalogs and artist publications, anthologies, magazines), and CD (sound poetry, music), DVDs, newspapers, participates and organizes events (lectures, presentations , symposia, exhibitions ...). He is a member of the editorial board of the magazine L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui.

Rudy Ricciotti is a recipient of: Grand Prix National d’Architecture, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, Commandeur de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.

John Pawson was born in 1949 in Halifax, Yorkshire. After a period in the family textile business he left for Japan, spending several years teaching English at the business university of Nagoya. Towards the end of his time there he moved to Tokyo, where he visited the studio of Japanese architect and designer Shiro Kuramata. Following his return to England, he enrolled at the Architecture Association in London, leaving to establish his own practice in 1981.

From the outset the work focused on ways of approaching fundamental problems of space, proportion, light and materials, rather than on developing a set of stylistic mannerisms - themes he also explored in his book Minimum, first published in 1996, which examines the notion of simplicity in art, architecture and design across a variety of historical and cultural contexts.

Early commissions included homes for the writer Bruce Chatwin, opera director Pierre Audi, contemporary art dealer Hester van Royen and collector Doris Lockhart Saatchi, together with art galleries in London, Dublin and New York. Subsequent projects have spanned a wide range of scales and building typologies, from Calvin Klein's flagship store in Manhattan and airport lounges for Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong to the new Cistercian monastery of Our Lady of Novy Dvur in Bohemia.

In May 2006, two decades of visits to the twelfth century Cistercian monastery of Le Thoronet culminated in an exhibition, 'John Pawson: Leçons du Thoronet', the first such intervention ever to be held within the precincts of the abbey. Two weeks after the exhibition opening in Provence,  celebrations in London marked the completion of the Sackler Crossing - a walkway over the lake at Kew's Royal Botanic Gardens. The same year also marked the practice's first stage design, with a set for a new ballet choreographed by Wayne McGregor for the Royal Ballet which premiered at London's Royal Opera House in November 2006.

Libeskind’s studio has designed various museums and other cultural and public buildings all over the world. Libeskind himself has also held many academic positions, and he was the first holder of the Frank O. Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto. Among the numerous awards he has received is the Hiroshima Art Prize (2001) for artists who propagate international peace and understanding through their work. It was the first time the prize was awarded to an architect.

In 2011 Libeskind delivered the eighth Auschwitz Never Again Lecture in Amsterdam, and on that occasion he also received the Annetje Fels-Kupferschmidt Award, presented annually to an individual or organization for the exceptional way it has realized the goals of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee.

David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated. He earned his BA at London South Bank University, before graduating with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art. In 1993, the same year of graduation, Adjaye won the RIBA Bronze Medal, a prize offered for RIBA Part 1 projects, normally won by students who have only completed a bachelors degree.

Previously a unit tutor at the Architectural Association, he was also a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. After very short terms of work with the architectural studios of David Chipperfield (London) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (Porto), Adjaye established a practice with William Russell in 1994 called Adjaye & Russell, based in North London. This office was disbanded in 2000 and Adjaye established his own eponymous studio at this point.

Recent works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Nobel Peace Centre in Osloand the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management completed in 2010. On April 15, 2009, he was selected in a competition to design the $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., planned to open in 2015. His design features a crown motif from Yoruba sculpture.

Alongside his international commissions, Adjayes work spans exhibitions, private homes and artist collaborations. He built homes for the designer Alexander McQueen, artist Jake Chapman, photographer Juergen Teller, actor Ewan McGregor, and artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. For artist Chris Ofili, he designed a new studio and a beach house in Port of Spain. He worked with Ofili to create an environment for the Upper Room, which was later acquired by Tate Britain and caused a nationwide media debate. He also collaborated with artist Olafur Eliasson to create a light installation, Your black horizon, at the 2005 Venice Biennale. He has also worked on the art project Sankalpa with director Shekhar Kapur. Adjaye coauthored two seasons of BBC's Dreamspaces television series and hosts a BBC radio programme. In June 2005, he presented the documentary, Building Africa: Architecture of a Continent. In 2008, he participated in Manifesta 7.

In February 2009, the cancellation or postponement of four projects in Europe and Asia forced the firm to enter into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a deal to stave off insolvency proceedings which prevents financial collapse by rescheduling debts – estimated at about £1m – to creditors.

Adjaye currently holds a Visiting Professor post at Princeton University School of Architecture. He was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In addition, he is a RIBA Chartered Member, an AIA Honorary Fellow, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. He also serves as member of the Advisory Boards of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and the London School of Economics Cities programme.

The studio's first solo exhibition: "David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings" was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in January 2006, with Thames and Hudson publishing the catalogue of the same name. This followed their 2005 publication of Adjaye's first book entitled "David Adjaye Houses".

http://www.adjaye.com