The architect begins his projects with spontaneous hand sketches, which, over time, he perfects and shapes, however, these drawings usually summarise the essence of what will become the final work. Among the buildings included in the documentary are:
-Institute of the Arab World, Paris.
The site of this renowned building was of particular importance to both the architect and the city of Paris and was directly related to the ancient history of Paris. From the rooftop of the institute, one can see iconic buildings of the city such as La Defense, Notre Dame, and the Pompidou Centre, forming the Parisian skyline.
-Institute of the Arab World, Paris.
The site of this renowned building was of particular importance to both the architect and the city of Paris and was directly related to the ancient history of Paris. From the rooftop of the institute, one can see iconic buildings of the city such as La Defense, Notre Dame, and the Pompidou Centre, forming the Parisian skyline.
"I am coming from the structuralist generation, I'm automatically influenced by what we can find when we specifically look at something in a special location. The location for me is absolutely fundamental"
Jean Nouvel
At the Arab World Institute, Jean Nouvel reinterprets traditional Arab features from a contemporary perspective. He proposes a rotation system for the façade, controlling the light in summer and allowing it to enter in winter.
-National Museum of Qatar, Qatar.
In the Qatar Museum, the award-winning architect proposes a kind of homage to the city's terrain. The spirit of the building is its monochromatic, sand-colored discs - on the exterior and interior - and the intersections of these discs form the interior spaces of the museum. An architecture created with wind, salt, water, air and sand.
-40 Mercer, New York City
The architect expresses the importance, for him, of contextualization when designing a building, indicating that it must belong to the spirit of the city, which in New York are the skyscrapers.
-MoMA Tower - 53w53, New York.
In designing this building, the architect and his collaborators noted the resemblance of their proposal to Hugh Ferriss's drawings from the 1920s. From this, they created a "spire" freeing up space in height, creating a contrast that reveals the surrounding rectangular buildings, while at the same time affirming the presence of the MoMA Tower.
-Doha Tower, Qatar.
In this project, the architect aims to create a spiritualized space through the relationship between time and light. To this end, he implemented a glass dome, which serves as a "second sky" and filters the sunlight through brisoleis.
-Louvre Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
For this project, light is once again a major source of inspiration for Jean Nouvel, who seeks to create a "rain of light" in the space. To do this, he implemented a series of layers that form the structure of the building's great dome, in which points of light appear and disappear according to the geometry of the structure.
"I fundamentally believe that a building is a reflection of an era. I really think one of the noble aspects of architecture is to testify for a generation, is to reflect a culture is a said instant."
Jean Nouvel
