- Born:
- April 9, 1953, Clermont-Ferrand, France (age 73)
Dominique Perrault
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Who is Dominique Perrault?
Dominique Perrault, born April 9, 1953, is a French architect and designer celebrated for his Modernist designs and creative revitalization of existing and historical buildings. He is known for designing the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Perrault's academic background includes a degree in architecture (1978) from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, a degree in urban planning (1979) from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, and a master’s degree in history (1980) from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. In 1981, he founded his architectural firm in Paris.
His design for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France won an international competition in 1989, launching him into international recognition. Other notable projects include the Olympic velodrome and swimming pool in Berlin (1999), the expansion of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, and the campus center of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul (2008).
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What is Dominique Perrault known for?
Dominique Perrault is a French architect and designer celebrated for his Modernist designs and creative revitalization of existing and historical buildings. He gained international recognition for his design of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (also called the François-Mitterrand Library), completed in 1995. Other notable works include Berlin's Olympic velodrome and swimming pool (1999), the expansion of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, completed in the early 2000s, and the campus center of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul (2008).
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What is one famous building designed by Dominique Perrault?
Dominique Perrault, a French architect and designer, is known for his Modernist designs and repurposing of historic buildings. He gained international acclaim for his design of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, also called the François-Mitterrand Library. Completed in 1995, its controversial design features four 22-story, L-shaped glass skyscrapers surrounding an open square. Perrault designed the buildings, plaza, and interior furnishings using steel, glass, and wood. The library acquires a copy of every publication printed in France and houses over 12,000,000 printed books.
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How does Dominique Perrault’s style stand out in architecture?
Dominique Perrault is a French architect and designer celebrated for his striking Modernist designs and his creative approach to repurposing existing and historical buildings. His style gained international recognition after his design for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, where he designed four buildings that resemble open books.
Perrault often uses steel, glass, and metal mesh in his designs, as seen in the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg and the Albi Grand Theater in France. He also explores building below ground, as demonstrated in the campus center of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
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What materials and techniques does Dominique Perrault often use in his designs?
Dominique Perrault is a French architect and designer known for his Modernist designs and inventive repurposing of existing or historic buildings.
Perrault often incorporates steel, glass, and wood into his designs, as seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, where he designed the buildings, plaza, and interior furnishings using these materials. He also uses metal mesh and screens in his designs to protect facades from sun and rain, as seen in the Albi Grand Theater and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
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How has Dominique Perrault influenced modern architecture in France and around the world?
Dominique Perrault, a French architect and designer born in 1953, is known for his Modernist designs and inventive repurposing of existing or historic buildings. His design for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (François-Mitterrand Library) launched him into the international architecture arena.
Perrault's notable projects include the Olympic velodrome and swimming pool in Berlin, the expansion of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, and the campus center of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul. He has also taught architecture at universities in Europe and the United States.
France has a rich architectural heritage and openness to various styles and innovations. While the country has embraced international architects, French architects of acclaim include Dominique Perrault, Jean Nouvel, and Adrien Fainsilber.
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Dominique Perrault (born April 9, 1953, Clermont-Ferrand, France) is a French architect and designer known for his striking Modernist designs and inventive repurposing of existing or historic buildings. He gained international acclaim for his design of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Perrault earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1978, a degree in urban planning in 1979 from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (now École des Ponts ParisTech), and a master’s degree in history in 1980 from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. A year later he established his own architectural firm in Paris, and he proceeded to complete a number of projects throughout the 1980s, including the Someloir factory in Châteaudun, France (1981–83); the ESIEE, an engineering school in Marne-la-Vallée, France (1984–87); and the Industrial Hotel Berlier in Paris, a mixed-use commercial building (1986–90).
In 1989 Perrault’s sleek Modernist design won the international competition for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (1995), also called the François-Mitterrand Library. Perrault designed four buildings that stand like open books at the four angles of a rectangular plaza. The buildings, plaza, and all the interior furnishings were designed by Perrault in steel, glass, and wood. That design launched Perrault into the international architecture arena. His next significant project was the Olympic velodrome (cycling track) and swimming pool (1999) in Berlin. In 1992 he expanded his practice and opened an office in Berlin. Perrault won a competition in 1996 for his design to expand the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. While working on the project, Perrault also opened an office in that city. His design for the expansion comprised two dramatic gold towers that, at 328 feet (100 metres) high, rise above all other buildings in the city. The main courtroom is enclosed in a gold steel-mesh canopy that can be seen from the outside of the building and lets natural light into the chamber.
In 2004 Perrault designed the campus centre of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul (2008)—a multipurpose building constructed under a hill that is bisected by a valley. The valley serves as a major thoroughfare while providing the open space necessary for bringing light through the glass curtain windows of the somewhat subterranean student centre. The top of the building serves both as a roof and as an open green space for students. Other notable projects completed in the 2000s include the new modern town hall and a rehabilitation of the original 14th-century building for shops and a hotel in Innsbruck, Austria (2004); the GKD Factory in Maryland (2004), his first design in the United States; the Olympic Tennis Centre in Madrid (2009); and the Fukoku insurance company office building in Ōsaka (2010).
Perrault’s buildings continued to elicit surprise. He dressed his structure for the Albi Grand Theater, Albi, France (2014), in a distinctive copper mesh to protect the facade from sun and rain. He also covered his building for the mechanical engineering department at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland (2016), though there he used panels of metal screens that fold and unfold to temper sunlight. Meanwhile, he built Vienna’s tallest skyscraper, DC Tower 1 (2014), and refurbished the Longchamp racecourse, Paris (2017). He also repurposed the Poste du Louvre, Paris (2020), a post office originally constructed in 1880–88, into a mixed-use building.
Perrault taught architecture in several universities in Europe and in the United States. In 2013 he became a professor at EPFL, where he also directed the Laboratory of Underground Architecture, which explores the possibilities of building belowground. Throughout his prolific career, Perrault was honoured with numerous awards, including the Grand National Prize for Architecture in France (1993), the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion Award for European Architecture (1997), and the Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award from the Japan Art Association (2015).