Jean Nouvel

Designing prestigious buildings and spectacular projects, Jean Nouvel is considered to be one of the foremost architects of the turn of the century. Nouvel earned widespread international acclaim and recognition. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 2008.

Early on in his career, Nouvel became a key participant in intellectual debates about architecture in France. He co-founded the Mars 1976 movement and, in 1977, the Syndicat de l'Architecture. Nouvel was one of the organizers of the competition for the rejuvenation of the Les Halles district and also the founder of the first Paris architecture biennale in 1980.

Jean Nouvel is often labeled a high-tech architect, although he prefers to think of himself as a modernist. Technology but not strictly for the sake of technology. Technology as a means to accomplish the "aesthetic miracle". Technology at the service of emotion, of symbolism.