He often repeats that it is not a play of forms or spaces; on the contrary, above all we must introduce into buildings the values of the culture and perpetuate them, setting them in stone. These ideas are central to his plans, from the Institut du Monde Arabe and the Fondation Cartier (Paris) to the Opera House in Lyon, from the Centre de Culture in Lucerne to the Reina Sofia Museum. We have chosen these to illustrate this awareness of the values of an era, coupled with a real symbolic and emotional message.

Over the years architecture has become more complex, evolving in step with materials. But one factor does not change. This is the personality of the architect, who cannot separate out his own desires and feelings. Hence the obsessions that the pundits of architecture are pleased to recall: his taste for the effects of materials, of light, of frameworks, his progressive approach, the integration of nature and his passion for the ephemeral and fragile...

It is impossible to escape the role of Jean Nouvel in design for almost twenty years. Emblematic or more intimate pieces are found throughout the world. Most of them were realised as part of architectural projects. An architect dealing with the monumental scale, he can bend his talents to a more modest scale, in the tradition of Mies van der Rohe or Gio Ponti. Architecture or design, his work always focuses on the usage, the relevance and the logic of his ideas.