Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel (born 12 August 1945) 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.

Family and education

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.

Awards and honours

Individual distinctions

• Honorary degree, University of Buenos Aires (1983),
• Honorary degree, Royal College of Art, London (2002)
• Honorary degree, University of Naples (2002)
• Honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (1993)
• Honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1995).
• Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1997). He first joined the order in 1983.
• Chevalier de la légion d'honneur.
• 2005 – Wolf Prize in Arts
• 2008 – Pritzker Prize

Distinctions for projects

• 1989 Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Institut du Monde Arabe. In 1987, the building also won the Équerre d'Argent awarded yearly to the best building in France.
• 2010 Wallpaper Design Award, Best new public house category for Copenhagen Concert Hall

Retrospectives

• 2001 – Centre Pompidou, Paris
• 2005 – Louisiana Museum of Modern Art