Archinect - News

Oliver Wainwright on Paris' claims to be the 'greenest Olympics yet'

2024-07-21T08:46:00-04:00

With its focus on mobility, greenery and renovation, the overarching legacy of the Paris Olympics looks set to be more promising than most, ultimately helping to stitch long-severed suburbs into the centre. The mental geography of most Parisians will expand, for the better. Perhaps that’s the most that could be hoped for: with its emphasis on speed and reliance on private developers, the Olympics can hardly be a vehicle for more equitable forms of development.

Oliver Wainwright unpacks the City of Lights’ vision for a green (some might say ‘greenwashed’) 2024 Olympic Games while complimenting some of the new architectural designs from Ateliers 2/3/4/, Kengo Kuma, and others. No survey would be complete, of course, without a site visit to the massive new Athletes’ Village master planned by Dominique Perrault for the gritty Saint-Denis suburb, where he counted several flaws.

“It follows a classic pattern,” author Justinien Tribillon tells him. “The development is designed to ensure that people with more money will move here, increasing local tax revenues, instead of building very ambitious, progressive, sustainable social housing for the existing inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis.”

The games' opening ceremony begins on the cleaned-up Seine River on Friday, July 26th, at 7:30 PM local time.

Dominique Perrault on the role architects have in post-pandemic society

2021-11-09T11:48:00-05:00

In my opinion, many people consider architects less important today, while they demand engineers, landscape experts and environmentalists. It seems they no longer expect a comprehensive perspective and sensibility from architects. Architects should become advocates for architecture and fight for their role.

With the completion of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021, Perrault will now pivot his focus to the 2024 Olympic Village plan that will help revitalize Saint-Denis, long-held to be one of the most neglected communes in the French capital region.

This year’s program focused on building resilience in cities as the specter of Covid loomed over the Biennale, causing disruptions in its traditional slate of in-person events. Perrault is currently finalizing plans for a new transit center in Seoul’s Gangnam district that will be completed in 2023.

Previously on Archinect: 2021 Seoul Biennale to open with online event on September 16th

“Going through the pandemic, it seems the proximity and heterogeneity of spaces have become important,” he said. “In order to keep up with the changing demand, new types of investment and a variety of projects are called for.”

Dominique Perrault will direct 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism

2019-11-16T09:00:00-05:00

French architect Dominique Perrault has been selected to curate the 2021 run of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

Perrault, founder of Dominique Perrault Architecture, succeeds architect Lim Jaeyong and urban planner Francisco Sanin, the curators of the 2019 edition of the biennale. Accord to a press release announcing Perrault's selection, the forthcoming biennale will "explore themes and research that will enrich professional practice and the vision on the city today and tomorrow."

The 3rd Seoul Biennae of Architecture and Urbanism is due to take place between September and November of 2021. The 2017 edition of the event was themed under the title of "Imminent commons," while the 2019 exhibition focused on the theme of "Collective city."

Perrault is perhaps best known for as the architect of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

Dominique Perrault reveals plans for the Paris 2024 Olympic Village

2017-09-18T19:54:00-04:00

After decades of failed bids and one particularly humiliating loss to London in 2012, Paris has officially been named the host of the 2024 Olympics. Though the city plans on making the most out of its existing facilities, some new development will take place. One of such projects is the Dominique Perrault-designed and planned Olympic Village, which helped secure Paris' 2024 bid because the city said they would be unable to freeze the project, which had already begun work, for four years had they accepted hosting duties for 2028 instead.

Along with the majority of new venues being built for the games, the Olympic Village is set in Saint-Denis—the poorest of France's 101 mainland departments—in an effort to rejuvenate the area. The development centers around the Cinema City film studios created in a disused power station by the film-maker Luc Besson which will house that athletes' dinin...

Dominique Perrault presented with the 2015 Praemium Imperiale gold medal for architecture

2015-10-21T18:15:00-04:00

Following last month's announcement, Dominique Perrault was presented with the 2015 Praemium Imperiale Arts Award medal for architecture during a formal ceremony today in Tokyo. Comparable to the Nobel Peace Prize, the prestigious award celebrates extraordinary achievement in the fields of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film.

In recent years, the prize was awarded to Steven Holl, David Chipperfield, Henning Larsen, Ricardo Legorreta, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, and Peter Zumthor, to name a few.

Alongside Perrault, the Praemium Imperiale medals were also presented to four notable cultural figures: Japanese-born British pianist Mitsuko Uchida; French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, German sculptor Wolfgang Laib, and graphic designer and artist Tadanori Yokoo. The 2015 Grant for Young Artists award (5 million yen) will go to Myanmar's Yangon Film School (headquartered in Berlin).

In addition to the specially-designed gold medals, the laureates received a testimonial letter f...

Dominique Perrault to receive 2015 Praemium Imperiale Arts Award for architecture

2015-09-10T14:50:00-04:00

Dominique Perrault is the 2015 architecture laureate for the prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award, as announced by the Japan Art Association today. Bestowed by the Japan Art Association since 1988, the award celebrates the association's 100th anniversary and honors the late Prince Takamatsu, who was a patron for 58 years and had faithful commitment to the arts.

The Praemium Imperiale recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts, and its list of winners include 134 legendary cultural figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. The prize also comes with a cash prize of 15 milion yen (approx. US$122,000). As expected, the list of architecture laureates is of a high caliber, including Steven Holl, David Chipperfield, Henning Larsen, Ricardo Legorreta, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, and Peter Zumthor, to name a few.

Alongside Perrault, the 2015 Praemium Imperiale laureates include four cultural figures: Japanese-born British pianist Mitsuko Uchida; French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, G...