Famous French architect Jean Nouvel continues to argue against generalist architecture. Nouvel has presented in October 2009 one of his latest works, the Pavilion B at Genoa’s Salone Nautico. With an impressive lesson on aesthetics, Nouvel, who holds the Pritzker Prize 2008, has accounted for the basics of his accomplishment: he aimed to insert the edifice within the urban and social backdrop of the city of Genoa.
Certainly, from the vantage point of the sea, the edifice is in harmony with the water and the boats that are moored. An analogous idea can be felt by looking at other of Nouvel’s achievements such as the Muse Quai Branly in Paris, the Akbar Tower in Barcelona and the improvement of Colle Val d’Elsa in Tuscany. Nouvel affirms to be against the so-called “carbon copy cities” in an interview appeared in La Repubblica, Italy, led by Renata Fontanelli on October 12th 2009, and of which are some lines roughly rendered in English here: