The scenography of nature in the work of Jean Nouvel

Abstract

This study analyzes the modernity underlying Jean Nouvel's ideas and evaluates the experience of nature intended in his work by employing scenography and through the artificialization of nature. Nouvel's pursuit of aesthetics is motivated by a desire to transform a site in a natural place. Therefore, his architecture is, as he describes it, ‘hyper-specific’ and ‘dematerialized’. Nouvel's methods and ideas bear the materialist and deterministic aspects of modernity. His works lean towards an artificiality that often exceeds their natural and cultural surroundings. Our experience of nature, though, does not come from the presentation of natural objects alone. It is a continuous ‘becoming’, a mundane and physical perception. This research therefore highlights the need to look beyond modernity's materialism and determinism and respect the complex and unfathomable totality in the design of a place.