Ateliers Jean Nouvel: The Ultimate Architecture Practice You Must Know

Ateliers Jean Nouvel (AJN) is one of the largest architecture practices in France with over 30 active projects all over the world and a multicultural staff of 180 professionals from the domains of architecture, urban design, landscape design, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, model making and image production! Led by top architect Jean Nouvel, this Studio has built museums, concert halls, conference centers, theaters, hotels, collective housing, office buildings, commercial centers, and private residences around the world and is respected as one of the top architectural firms in the world!

But the fame of the Studio is due to Jean Nouvel, an artist that’s recognized as one of the world’s most innovative architects. His projects transform the landscapes in which they are built, often becoming major urban events. His unique approach, driven by the specificities of context, program and site, has proven effective in projects such as the Arab World Institute in Paris, Lyon’s Opera House, Lucerne’s Culture and Congress Center (Switzerland), the Vinci Conference Center in Tours, the extension of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (Spain), the Soho Apartments in New York, Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater (United States of America), the Agbar Tower in Barcelona (Spain), Copenhagen’s Danish Radio Concert Hall (Denmark), the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. Most recently, numbers of new built projects strengthened AJN influence, such as Tour Horizons in Boulogne-Billancourt, Archipel Theatre in Perpignan, Montpellier City Hall, Hôtel Sofitel in Vienna (Austria), Hotel Renaissance in Barcelona (Spain), Imagine Institute in Paris or One Central Park in Sydney (Australia).

Jean Nouvel’s international recognition favored numbers of projects currently under studies or under construction, such as the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in Beijing (China), the National Museum of Qatar in Doha, the Musée du Louvre Abu Dhabi (United Arabs Emirates), the Anderson Tower in Singapore, a real estate complex in Lima (Peru). AJN won important international competitions, such as the Philharmonie de Paris or Charleroi’s Police Headquarters (Belgium). Many cities have entrusted AJN for their urban plans, such as Boulogne-Billancourt (Ile Seguin), Prague (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Tangier (Morocco), Toledo or Vigo (Spain).

François Fontès, president since may 2014, and Diane Clerc, appointed Managing Director, give AJN their expert knowledge of the world of architecture and construction. The new board allows Jean Nouvel to dialog with our clients during the whole process of architectural design.

BIOGRAPHY

Jean Nouvel was born 12 August 1945, and he is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l’Architecture. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (technically, the prize was awarded for the Institut du Monde Arabe which Nouvel designed), the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 2008. A number of museums and architectural centres have presented retrospectives of his work.

Nouvel was born on 12 August 1945 in Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne, France. He is 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 he 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.

When Nouvel failed an entrance examination at the École des Beaux-Arts of Bordeaux, he moved to Paris where he won first prize in a national competition to attend the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. From 1967 to 1970, Nouvel earned his income as an assistant to architects Claude Parent and Paul Virilio, who after only one year, made him a project manager in charge of building a large apartment complex.

Nouvel and filmmaker Odile Fillion married and have two sons, Bertrand, who is a post-doctorate computer scientist working at Mindstorm Multitouch in London, and Pierre, who is a theater producer and designer at his company, Factoid. With his second wife Catherine Richard, Nouvel has a daughter, Sarah. He lives now with Mia Hägg, who is a Swedish architect working at her practice Habiter Autrement (HA) in Paris.

The Projects

Police Headquarters of Charleroi and extension of Charleroi Danses

Belgium

Jean Nouvel and the mayor of Charleroi, Mr. Paul Magnette, inaugurated November 14, 2014, the new Police Headquarters of the City of Charleroi designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel and MDW architecture. This project was chosen in 2011 as the result of international competition. Its goal is to create a pleasant image of the police while giving the city a new urban landmark. The basis of the work led to keeping and restoring the two wings of the existing old cavalry barracks and building a 75 meters high Tower on the site that was freed. This building merges into the urban landscape of the upper city and creates a dialogue with the City Hall belfry, becoming a new symbol on the city skyline. This verticality made it possible to create a wide public square open to the city. The users of the Police Headquarters and of Charleroi Danses and the visitors to the future Musée des Beaux-Arts will increase the surprising diversity of the area in their comings and goings; they will meet in the new public square and eat in the new brasserie where police and dance will encounter each other.

One Central Park

Australia

Two iconic towers designed by Jean Nouvel for Block 2 of the Frasers Broadway project transform the skyline of Sydney. The program includes a 34-story residential apartment tower and a 12-story serviced apartment tower set on a common retail podium. The 130-meter high building is the culminating landmark of the multi-building Frasers Broadway project, located on a former brewery site near the downtown.
A vertical landscape designed in collaboration with French botanist and artist Patrick Blanc covers approximately 50% of the building’s façade area. The landscape extends the planted area of the adjacent urban park vertically onto the building, creating an exceptional living environment for the building’s residents and a powerful green icon on the Sydney skyline.

Hainan Atlantis

China

It’s a matter of simply, evidently, building the most beautiful hotel of our time, dedicated to leisure, the sun, the sea, while offering a new interpretation of the Atlantis theme: the mysteries linked to the sea, to reclaimed secrets and to the fauna of mythology.
To succeed in this challenge, it is essential in Hainan to stand out from the neighboring hotels by clearly using our first asset: a site much wider than the others, at the center of the district of beaches area and hotels. We have the means to clearly dominate this site in its center, by implementing an architecture of the largest scale, legible from a distance, the most monumental, the most inscribed in the sky. This architecture must express that it is dedicated to the sea and conceived to feel the sea, and this from the lobby to the room, including the restaurants, the conference center and the night clubs.