Symbolic Statements - Jean Nouvel - Pidgeon Digital

Symbolic Statements | Jean Nouvel | Pidgeon Digital 14/05/20, 15:51
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Symbolic Statements
Jean Nouvel
JEAN NOUVEL , 1989

©Monica Pidgeon
https://www-pidgeondigital-com.proxy-auth3.iuav.it/talks/symbolic-statements/chapters/ Pagina 1 di 22
I think that architecture is not only a game with space. And the meaning of
architecture changes with time and with history. I think that architecture now, it's
not only the game of the shadows that Le Corbusier said. I think that architecture
now, it's only to put signs of culture of civilisations in buildings in many, many ways.
You can use graphism, you can use design, you can use light; it's not only a geometric
and spatial game. I think also that architecture is the contextual and conceptual
game. The first context very important for me is the context of history. I try to build
buildings which I could not build twenty years ago. The other very important context
is the human context. You cannot build the same building with different persons -
contractors, client, engineers, and also many, many consultants. On each project I
make the choice of a team, of a very specific team, and I work with a "scenograph",
with an artist; for the Arab Institute with a professor of Arabic language, and so on.
On every project I had a different team around me and generally I explain that I work
exactly like a director of a movie.
2
INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.
TOP: VIEW ACROSS SEINE FROM NORTH-EAST.
BOTTOM: SOUTH FAÇADE WITH SORBONNE
BEYOND. VIEW FROM SOUTH-WEST
©Monica Pidgeon
In 1981 the first Presidential project was the Arabian Institute. It's a cultural centre
with exhibitions, museum, library, auditorium, restaurant, and so on. It's not really an
institute. Nobody teaches in this building. It's a very particular site just at the limit of
two landscapes of the city. During two thousand years this place was the limit of
Paris. In the nineteenth century new suburbs were built on this place, the market of
wine and the zoological garden and a station. But just in front, on the opposite side of
the street was the University, La Sorbonne, and many, many, very, very old houses of
the twelfth century. This building is just at the joint of two urban designs, one very
old and one very new, very modern, and this building is exactly like a joint. On one
side, the size of the building is exactly the size of the modern buildings of the
University, and is built on a line extension of the modem University, and I create a
very large and deep pedestrian place, and you can go from the Boulevard Saint-
Germain to the Jardin des Plantes by this pedestrian place.

VIEW ACROSS RIVER SEINE FROM NORTH-WEST
©Georges Fessey
On the opposite side, in front of the Île Saint-Louis, the size of the building is exactly
the size of the old buildings of Paris, is exactly the same height, twenty five metres
high on this side and, on the modern side, is thirty one metres.
4
TOP: BREAK BETWEEN NORTH & SOUTH BLOCKS
WITH PATIO AT EAST END. VIEW FROM WEST;
BOTTOM: PLAN
©Monica Pidgeon. Plan Jean Nouvel
Between the two parts of the building I have a break and this break arrives in a patio
because the dialectic between the two urban systems is also a cultural dialectic
between the two civilisations.

TOP: SOUTH FAÇADE. BOTTOM: NORTH SIDE
©Top Monica Pidgeon. Bottom Georges Fessey
On one side I have the signs of Arabian culture. On the other side I have the sign of
occidental Parisian culture. The building is not an Arabian building. It's an occidental
building to show the Arabian culture. Many, many people in Arabian countries
wanted a building exactly like their building in their country with very thick walls,
with arches and cupolas and very opaque, and I proposed to make the choice of
Arabian themes, the light, the natural light and geometry, and to build a modern
building, a building of the 80s in Paris. And that was very shocking for them because
they wanted a traditional building.

DETAIL OF SOUTH FAÇADE
©Monica Pidgeon
After, when they saw the work, when they saw the south façade, they began to
understand. But that was very long because, for them, aluminium, modern
technology, that was the opposite of Arabian culture. The main material of the
building is the light .The south façade is like a filter and you can see all the Arabian
geometry in the façade but also in the space, because you see this geometry on the
shadows and you see stars, squares, circles and you see all these drawings in the
building on the ground, the walls, and so on.

INSIDE THE LIBRARY
©Georges Fessey
At the head of the building I put a tower. This tower is included in the interior of the
building behind a glass wall. It is a spiral tower exactly like the tower of the Mosque
of Samarra. And for the ardent people it's a very strong and symbolic sign. You can
see all the geometry game on the tower with a very particular wave. All the symbolic
elements are white. It's true for the patio, for the tower included in the building. In
this tower I put the books of the library. And when you arrive in the library, you put
your book in this tower and you come back in a room from it. But when you are in this
tower you are just in front of Notre-Dame de Paris, Île Saint-Louis, in the landscape
of Paris.

TRANSPARENCY & REFLECTIONS
©Georges Fessey
The main material is the light, is the glass with the shadows, but also with the
aluminium, because the aluminium is shining and it's also very soft, very smooth. And
all this building is a symphony of grey. It's a contrast between the works of art - very
precious - and the very flat area, grey, very minimal.
9
TRANSPARENCY & REFLECTIONS
©Monica Pidgeon
The game with light is also a game with transparency and reflections. You can see the
city in the glass, you can see the sky through the glass but also in the glass, and I
wanted a very immaterial building.
10

HYPOSTYLE LOBBY TO AUDITORIUM
©Georges Fessey
In the interior, another symbolic place is the lobby of the auditorium with nearly two
hundred columns, white columns, exactly like in the entrance of the mosque. But it's
not a direct quotation; it's an interpretation of a rhythmic thing.
11

DETAILS OF SOUTH FAÇADE & DIAPHRAGMS
©Monica Pidgeon
The south façade is a technological façade but I use the technology not for explaining
how the building is built. The first message which a building can say cannot today be
"how I am". For me the most important message is symbolic message. It's not a beam,
it's not a pole, it's not a tube. It's "what is the meaning of the space, what is the
sensation when I enter this place?". I use technology only for the pleasure, for the
sensations, for the emotion. In the south façade, all the technology is here only for
qualifying the light. It's not only a blind - because with an electric Venetian blind it's
easier and it's a better technological background. But for me it doesn't matter. For
me the most important is the sensation of light and I put twenty four thousand
diaphragms between two glasses with five hundred electric engines, like in the
planes, and all the diaphragms are joined to a computer, and this computer is joined
with a photo-electric cell and also to a thermometer and a clock.
12

©Georges Fessey
And when the light is very strong the diaphragms are closed.
13

©Monica Pidgeon
And at night or when it's cloudy, the diaphragm; are open. It's a game for the spirit
and for the eyes.
14

©Georges Fessey
But I wanted also to give, in this wall, the equivalence of preciousness with the
Arabian "mashrabiya". The Arabian mashrabiya is in marble or in wood. I wanted this
equivalence with the precision and technology. And when you are looking at this
south façade, it's a very precious system like the interior of a watch.
15

ENTRANCE LOBBY
©Georges Fessey
Another very specific part in this building is the lobby. The lobby is a contrast
between two spaces, a vertical space of thirty five metres high with the lifts in this
space, and a very horizontal space, very, very, very low, at two point five metres high.
And many critics have said to me "it's not good because the ceiling is too low". And I
say "it's exactly like in the painting of Modigliani. It's not good because the necks are
too long". I wanted very flat space, and the ceiling is exactly like the wing of a plane,
completely smooth with the aluminium jointed with a very good precision.
16

NOTRE DAME SEEN FROM TERRACE ON NORTH
BLOCK
©Georges Fessey
Another very important point was the use of the fantastic landscape of Paris, and I
designed a very high building in this place with terrace in the north to see Notre-
Dame de Paris, La Seine and Île Saint-Louis. This competition in 1981, we were seven
architects, the most famous architects in France, and the other architects proposed a
building on the other part of the site. I was going to propose a high building on this
part of the site but that was very dangerous. Because, in France, to propose a
modern architecture in a historical site is very dangerous because we have a Site
Commission, Administrative Commission, and generally they say "No, you cannot
build modern architecture just in front of Saint-Louis and Notre-Dame de Paris. And
when I proposed this building at this Commission they said to are "OK, your building
is fantastic but you can put this building twenty metres away". That was crazy
because all the shape of the building is only in the extension of the other building, of
the streets, and you cannot change the place of the building. And after many, many
hours they said "OK, you can build her". But I proposed thirty five metres high and
they said "No, thirty one". And I agreed at thirty one metres high.
17
TOP: PRIVATE HOUSE; BOTTOM: FLATS AT ST.

QUENTIN
©Bureau J Nouvel; Mondial Clich.
I began to work in 1970 in my own office and I tried to build flats, and during fifteen
years I could not build one flat in a building. I built houses for private families but I
never won a competition for social housing. And in France it's very important for an
architect to build social housing because it's public money and it's a very cultural
programme. And I lost many competitions. Only in 1984 one client asked to one of
my partners-not to me - to build social housing, very small programme, forty two
flats. And I began to work on this programme.
18
NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. EXTERIOR

©Von Shaewene.
And a few months after, the mayor of Nîmes, a town in the south of France, Jean
Cacharal, asked me to build a most important programme of one hundred and
twenty flats. In this year in France, government asked to architects to build flats at a
lower price but smaller flats and I don't agree. And I proposed to build in the same
place larger flats because I think that you cannot live in the same flat twenty or thirty
years after. The bathroom is not the same concept now in a family because thirty
years before you have not baths; you have only a shower or only a basin. I propose in
all my flats there were large bathrooms with always a window in the bathroom. But
now in France ninety percent - perhaps more - of bathrooms are short without
window. And I said I have an aesthetic approach, very specific, of social housing. And
this approach is the quantity of space like an aesthetic approach. A beautiful room is
a large room; a beautiful flat is a large flat. And I work to build the largest flats I can
build with the money. I was looking for the least technology to build the largest space
possible. That was difficult because, if I built with the same technology as the other
building, I cannot build larger. I had to take industrial technology.
19
NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987.

CORRUGATED METAL FAÇADES
©Von Shaewene.
I proposed façades in corrugated metal. I proposed structure in concrete but with a

very short space between two walls because it's more economic. And I propose all
the more economic systems in each part of the building. And after, I work on the
aesthetic of the economic system. I work also on the context.
20

INDUSTRIAL DOORS OPEN FLATS TO BALCONY
©Von Shaewene.
In Nîmes the climate is very hard, is very hot in summer and cold in winter. I
proposed to have very large terraces with façades which I can open all the façade
with industrial doors. With these industrial doors, generally you make only factories
or warehouses and so on. And I propose this door for the façades of the flats. And in
Nemausus - it's the name of the programme -you can open all your façade on the
terrace. And you have your main room completely in the extension of the terrace.
21
NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. DUPLEX

FLAT INTERIOR
©Von Shaewene.
Generally it's duplex and you can open the doors on five metres high, and it's very
spectacular and you have the sun in the flat. I proposed also to have always two
façades in a flat, opposite façades, because, when you open a window you have the
wind through the flat and it's very comfortable. We have different flats, generally
three or four rooms in the simplex, duplex, triplex. It's a very large typology.
Generally a flat of three rooms in France is sixty five to sixty six square metres, and in
Nemausus it's between ninety and one hundred square metres and with a very large
high space. I propose also a scenographic approach of the flat, and with Jacques le
Marche, a scenograph who worked with me; we thought what is possible in this flat,
not a functional approach but a very irrational approach: how you can make love in
the kitchen and you can eat in the bedroom - unexpected events. And you never
design the same flats when you think of that. For example, we put glass walls
between the bedrooms and the living room. Children can pull the curtain and can see
below, the TV, and can see, perhaps, their parents eat. In the bathroom it's exactly
the same thing. We have a transparent door; you can put a curtain or not put a
curtain. We have also two transparent walls of two rooms just in front. You can see
from a room to another room, but you can also put a curtain there, as you want. But
different games are possible. It's a poetic approach and not a functional approach.
22
DECORATED CONCRETE WALL
©Von Shaewene.
All the interiors of the flats are designed. In France, since twenty years now, an
architect cannot design the interior of the flats because it's a sociological approach.
The interior of the flat is for the family. And you have always the same doors, the
same walls, the same painting on the wall, the same door handles, the same bath in
the bathroom, and so on. And here it's an industrial material. I put industrial stairs,
glass doors, and all the walls are in concrete. An artist worked on these walls. And the
interior of the flat is architecture also. It's a polemic approach in France, because at
the beginning of the century in Paris every flat was very precise. That was an
architecture IN the flat. On the floor you have wood in different drawings, you have
glass of colour in the stairs, you have many, many things. And now it's forbidden.
Why? That was very difficult to explain to the client. And he said OK. But when I
proposed an artist to paint in the flats he said "No, it's not possible because I cannot
rent my flats with painting". And this artist worked only fifty percent of the flats. But
twenty percent of the other inhabitants asked the painter to put painting on their
walls. And for me it's very important, that. In France it was very important for me to
build this building because all the social housing was the same. And I don't say with
Nemausus it's necessary to build social housing like this, but it's possible to build
social housing in another way, and you can find other ways.
23
NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. PILOTIS &

PARKING SPACE UNDER BUILDING
©Von Shaewene.
The garages are below the building with the roof of the car at the level of the ground,
and when you arrive you see through the building, below the building; and you see
the curve of the ceiling of the garage, and you see the building above the landscape.
24
NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. THE TWO

BLOCKS LOOK LIKE BOATS
©Von Shaewene.
Another thing is very important: very old trees, plane trees, were on this site, and
that was a very strong line in the middle of the site. And I built the two buildings very
near the trees. Everybody said Nemausus is exactly like two boats above the city. I
don't want to design boats but when you use aluminium and industrial doors, and
when you have very big terraces along the building, and when you are on pilotis - yes,
perhaps it's like a boat. And I like the lightness of the two buildings.
Related talks:
Neil Thomas Michael Wigginton Rifat Chadirji

Feeling The Structure Glass In Architecture An Internationalised Tradition In
1989 1988 Architecture
1988
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Symbolic Statements | Jean Nouvel | Pidgeon Digital 14/05/20, 15:51

HOME ABOUT EXPLORE SUBSCRIBE FAQ CONTACT

JEAN NOUVEL , 1989

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

INSTITUT DE MONDE ARABE, PARIS, 1981 - 1988.

TOP: PRIVATE HOUSE; BOTTOM: FLATS AT ST.

NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. EXTERIOR

NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987.

I proposed façades in corrugated metal. I proposed structure in concrete but with a

NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987.

NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. DUPLEX

NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. PILOTIS &

NEMAUSUS FLATS, NÎMES. 1984 - 1987. THE TWO

Neil Thomas Michael Wigginton Rifat Chadirji

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