[...] the museum site is surrounded by the urban landscape of a modern city, but it still remains under the influence of the desert and the sea, the French architect tells The Art Newspaper in an interview in his Paris studio.

Hence his choice of a design inspired by the desert rose, a flower-like cluster of gypsum crystals, which he sees as the “most powerful symbol of the desert, and the influence of wind, time and water”. — The Art Newspaper

Last week, the final piece of the third and highest apex of Jean Nouvel’s first residential skyscraper was anchored and installed over Midtown. 53 West 53rd Street now stands 1,050 feet tall, and is currently the 7th-tallest skyscraper under construction in New York City. — New York YIMBY

All architects must be fully responsible for the political conditions and consequences of the projects they accept; any position that would make them only an executant constitutes an insult to their function and their ability to act. — The Funambulist Magazine

The National Museum of Qatar, designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, is being inaugurated on 28 March 2019 [...]

Nouvel, who also designed the Louvre Abu Dhabi, drew inspiration from the crystalline forms that emerge in the desert as the basis for his design with curved discs, intersections and cantilevered angles. — The Art Newspaper

The architect behind 53 West 53rd wanted the tower to be synonymous with New York City, to be a building that couldn’t easily be slipped into another skyline.

“A worldwide catastrophe today is the number of buildings that are parachuted because they were preconceived. Offices, housing, shopping malls all look the same,” Jean Nouvel told The Real Deal, translated from French. — The Real Deal

Back in January, the Jean Nouvel-designed MoMA tower was on the heels of reaching its full 82-story height and now, that milestone has been accomplished. Last week, the long-awaited supertall, named 53W53, topped out and it now stands at 1,050 feet tall, tying with the New York Times building and the Chrysler Building as the city’s sixth tallest building. — Curbed

Starchitecture is out of fashion these days, but it can still produce visual wonders. The look of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Jean Nouvel, might be described as Arabic-galactic. In the form of an immense, filigreed gray half-sphere resting on a low base infiltrated by water channels, it could pass as a spaceship, an unfinished mosque or a Venetian pavilion set on the edge of the Persian Gulf. — NYT

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has finally opened its doors a decade after the agreement between the French and Emirati governments was signed to establish the mega-museum on Saadiyat Island. [...]

An underwhelming entrance via a nondescript car park might be improved in years to come by an adjoining garden. “It should appear in a few years,” Nouvel said, adding that this was dependent on funding. — The Art Newspaper

The French architect Jean Nouvel has defended his Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, a massive domed complex that opens in November, from accusations it was built by exploited and abused migrant workers. [...]

In an interview as the finishing touches are put to the colossal construction, the architect dismissed accusations over exploited workers as an “old question” and insisted conditions for those building the museum were better than for some employed in Europe. — The Guardian

Mr Pouille posted pictures of the museum's exterior, including its 7,000-tonne dome, which shelters many of the museum's gallery spaces while creating a microclimate for its internal plaza areas.

They also show the Louvre Abu Dhabi's concrete beach, whose steps have been designed to act as an amphitheater-like public gathering space and viewing platform, just opposite the main museum complex. — The National

Taking the view that the owner of the Philharmonie had modified and thus defiled his architectural work, Jean Nouvel had sued ... asking the court to order the owner to perform all works necessary for the restoration of his work so as to comply with the architectural plans he had initially drawn. [...]

The case at hand renews the debate on the difficulties of granting remedies which constitute an acceptable way to balance the proprietor's rights and the moral rights of architects. — lexology.com