A+U 587 19:08 Arabic Context and Culture - 3 Recent Projects from Jean Nouvel

This issue's main feature are three commissions that Ateliers Jean Nouvel has completed over the past three decades for Arab clients in Paris and the Gulf States: National Museum of Qatar, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and Institut du Monde Arabe. The projects embody the skill with which the office gives a fresh spin on traditional themes while creating a sense of place that enhances the site, and are notable for their abstraction of themes in Islamic architecture in creating a fusion of new and old, indigenous and Western. The issue also profiles several recent buildings by Valerio Olgiati, Frank Gehry, Smiljan Radic, BIG, Peter Markli, Peter Zumthor, and Eduardo Souto de Moura.