Video: ‘The Competition’ Trailer
Madrid-based architect Angel Borrego Cubero of Office for Strategic Spaces (OSS) has directed and produced the first documentary focused on the tense process that often characterizes an architectural competition. Appropriately titled The Competition, the film captures a fascinating account on how five world renowned architects – Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Dominique Perrault, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster – “toil, struggle and strategize to beat the competition.” The premise is based on a nearly forgotten, 2008 competition for a new National Museum of Art of Andorra, a small Pyrenees country nestled between Spain and France, which has yet to be realized.
The Competition is expected to debut in late 2013. Updates will be available on OSS’s website and facebook.
Milan Design Week 2013: Office for Living / Jean Nouvel
This week, 2008 Pritzker Prize laureate Jean Nouvel is expressing his vision for the workspaces of the future at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. Nouvel was asked by Cosmit, the Salone’s parent company, to create a huge project tailored specifically to the Saloni that would document the tremendous changes that have altered living and working spaces over the past few years. Nouvel responded with a project that “frees up the office space” and is a “counter to urban segregation and the zoning of other specially dedicated workplaces.” He achieves these goals in his design by rejecting cloned and enclosed spaces as well as serial repetitiveness, suggesting more cohesive formulas that will better serve the domestic and international workplaces of the future.
More from Cosmit on “Project: office for living” after the break.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, aims at creating a welcoming world which associates lights and shadows as well as shimmers and calm places in a serene atmosphere. Its objective is to belong to its country, to its history, to its geography, avoiding being either a dull translation of this reality or a pleonasm meaning boredom and convention. It also aims at emphasizing the fascination generated by rare encounters. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Venice Biennale 2012: Meeting Lines / Ateliers Jean Nouvel + Habiter Autrement (Mia Hägg)
Jean Nouvel and Mia Hägg presented “Meetings Lines” at the Venice Biennale. For ‘Common Ground’ they decided to show their finalist project for the Slussen Masterplan competition, an ambitious urban design project that seeks to replace much of the degenerated water and transportation infrastructure in the heart of Stockholm. The project proposes three different public spaces, designed as living links for the city, inspired by infrastructure such as the Rialto Bridge in Venice.
More about the exhibit after the break.
Jean Nouvel selected to design new National Art Museum of China
Rumors are flying that Pritzker Prize winning architect Jean Nouvel has been selected to design the new National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in Beijing. Although the official announcement isn’t due until November, Architectural Record has claimed that multiple, unidentified sources confirmed the news. If the reports are true, the French architect will have beat out fellow Pritzker Prize-winning architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid for the highly coveted commission.
In a post-2008 Olympics attempt to attract more visitors to the area, the massive, 1.3 million square foot structure will be built next to the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Bird’s Nest. It will be one of three buildings planned for the area – the others being a museum dedicated to arts and crafts and a Sinology museum.
Continue after the break to learn what may have given Nouvel the edge.
CTBUH Names Best Tall Buildings for 2012
Four innovative towers in Canada, Qatar, Australia and Italy have named the best tall buildings in the world for 2012 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the international not-for-profit association. These towers demonstrate the continued renaissance of tall building development worldwide, as a record number of 88 tall buildings soaring over 200 meters were completed in 2011, compared to 32 buildings in 2005. Another 96 tall buildings are projected to compete this year, with China being the largest contributor.
The four regional winners include the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada (Americas); 1 Bligh Street, Sydney (Asia and Australia); Palazzo Lombardia, Milan (Europe); and Doha Tower in Doha, Qatar (Middle East and Africa). Additionally, Al Bahar Towers in Abu Dhabi won the CTBUH’s first Innovation Award for the project’s computer sun-screen.
“The winners display remarkable creativity, as well as a respect for the environment, connection with place, and the urban surroundings,” said Richard Cook, awards committee chairman and founding partner of Cook+Fox Architects.
Continue after the break to learn more.
R4 / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
R4 is a territory whose urban and river-port aspects have been marked by exchanges, artists and the public. Yet it is not characterised as having any particular identity, but rather as a melting pot and a territory which is singularised by its ever-changing content.
Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Location: Paris, France
Area: 30,000 sqm
Photographs: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Not Dead Yet! Developer Files Plans for Nouvel “MoMA Tower”
Developer Hines “quietly filed” plans for a shortened, 1050 foot-version of Jean Nouvel’s “Torre Verre” earlier this month. The tower, on 53rd St. in Midtown Manhattan, will be located on land sold to Hines by the Museum of Modern Art in exchange for$125 million and three floors of new gallery space. Originally designed in 2007, the tower has seen numerous setbacks including a 200-foot “haircut” by the City Planning Commission in July 2009 in response to its impact on views from the nearby Empire State Building. The plans are compliant with two special permits filed in fall 2009. According to a department spokesperson the application is “chair certification,” which doesn’t require public approvals.
From the New York Observer via Curbed.
Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom-Stilwerk / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Opening its doors to the public in December 2010, Ateliers Jean Nouvel’s latest project, Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom-Stilwerk is comprised of a variety of uses. Featuring a 5 star hotel with 182 bedrooms and suites, the mixed-use project also includes conference rooms, a fitness club, a restaurant with panoramic views on the 18th floor, retail trade area of 4,900 sqm and a public parking lot.
Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Location: Vienna, Austria
Collaborators: Pipiloti Rist, Alain Bony, Henri Labiole, Patrick Blanc
Photographs: Julien Lanoo
Seguin Island / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel was chosen as the lead urban architect and coordinator for the Seguin Island project in July of 2009. Here we are sharing with you the Ateliers Jean Nouvel team master plan for Seguin Island in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
A diverse group of programs will make up the spaces, total surface area of 300,000 sqm, including cultural, retail, social facilites, parks, gardens, terraces serving as a destination for both residents and tourists. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2010 and final completion is expected for the end of 2023.
Follow the break for a video and renderings by Ateliers Jean Nouvel.
Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Location: Seguin Island, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Project Area: 300,000 sqm
Renderings: Courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel
