Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel was born in 1945 in France and is an architect who also works in product design. After he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, Jean Nouvel ranked first in the entrance examination of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1966 and obtained his degree in 1971.

Nouvel's attitude owes a lot to the experience he gained in the studio of C. Parent and P. Virilio at the end of the sixties, which shaped his critical and multidisciplinary approach to design. Jean Nouvel’s work does not result from considerations of style or ideology, but from a quest to create a unique concept for a singular combination of people, place and time. Since 1987, with the completion of his Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, every work he has created has been warmly received by the critics.

Jean Nouvel was the recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2008. In France, he has received many awards and prizes, including the Gold Medal from the French Academy of Architecture, two “Équerres d’Argent” and the National Grand Prize for Architecture. He was appointed Docteur Honoris Causa of the Royal College of Art in London in 2002.