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Atelier d’architecture Christian de Portzamparc

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post updated 1 September 2023

Atelier d’architecture Christian de Portzamparc Practice

Christian de Portzamparc architect:

picture © Atelier Christian de Portzamparc

English text (scroll down for French):

Christian de Portzamparc

Christian de Portzamparc was born in Casablanca in 1944 and graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1970.

In 1994 Christian de Portzamparc became the first French architect to gain the prestigious “Pritzker Architectural Prize”, at the age of 50.

He is also Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres,
Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite,
Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur;
Grand Prix d’Architecture de la Ville de Paris 1990
Médaille d’Argent 1992
Grand Prix National d’Architecture 1998, and
Honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects ( A.I.A.)

The most prestigious city planning prize in France: “Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme” was awarded to him 2004.

In 2006, the “Collège de France” created a 53rd chair dedicated to ‘artistic creation’, and called on Christian de Portzamparc to be its first occupant.

He created his agency, the Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, in 1980. Based in Paris, it constructs worldwide and is a cohesive team of 80 people that have positive working relationships with established partners around the world. The work is organized with studio teams, in order to maintain a close familiar work spirit with offices in New-York City and Rio de Janeiro in addition to ‘satellite’ offices situated near construction sites. The Atelier was awarded by American magazine «Fast Company» the «Most innovative company in architecture» prize.

image © Atelier d’architecture Christian de Portzamparc

Architect, urban planner and also a painter, C.de Portzamparc is implicated in the research of form and meaning, as well as being a constructor.

The atelier Christian de Portzamparc focuses on all scales of construction and a wide variety of programs. Each individual project is a new challenge of research and experimentation from the conception design to the construction solutions.

The atelier may be also defined as an urban laboratory; based around in-depth urban and structural analysis developed by C. de Portzamparc since the 70’s through project manifesto, competitions and studies that led to an evolution of methods, allowing a multitude of practical applications to these theoretical research and analysis principals. Within his renewed vision of urban structure, which he named the “open block”, the work focuses on research and concerns the quality of living spaces and the understanding of the city. From buildings to urban re-think, the town is a founding principal of his work, developing in parallel and in crossover along three major lines: community oriented buildings, towers, and neighborhoods (from the block to the major city developments).

photo from architect

• COMMUNITY ORIENTED BUILDINGS: Often becoming urban reference points, symbols that draw together, creating a pole within the larger urban landscape.
Through these large individual objects, urban poles of attraction, Christian de Portzamparc creates environments wherein the interior and exterior spaces interpenetrate, working as catalysts in cityscape dynamics.
Christian de Portzamparc’s enduring passion for music made him participate since the 80’s in a series of competitions concerning music and dance such as the Paris Opera Dance School at Nanterre (awarded the « Equerre d’Argent » 1988).
His constructed concert halls have all been awarded architectural prizes:

•the «City of Music» in Villette Park, Paris (completed1995), a 800 to 1200 seats concert hall, won the “Equerre d’argent” 1995.

•the “Luxembourg Philharmonie” (completed 2005): a 1500 seats Grand Auditorium and a Music Chamber Hall won the “International Architecture Awards 2008 for the Best New Global Design” by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design ; and the « Luxembourg Architecture Prize 2007 Golden Awards » by the Luxemburg Architectural Fondation.

•“Cidade da Musica” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, commissioned in 2002, due for completion in 2011, a Philharmonic Hall of 1800 seats transformable into an Opera hall of 1300 seats, already won the “International Architecture Awards 2008 for the Best New Global Design” by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design an dis described by the jury as “One of the boldest and largest projects awarded in 2008 is Christian de Portzamparc’s Cidade da Musica in Rio de Janerio—an absolute masterpiece of poetry and materials and an overwhelming scale that will bring an instant landmark to this Brazilian city.

A new concert hall is now in design phase (international competition 2009) for what will be Africa’s largest Theatre in Casablanca, Morocco: CasaArt.
In the field of the museums, the Bourdelle Museum in Paris (completed 1988) is a meditation on light and space in relation to sculpture; and « les Champs Libres » in Rennes (completed 2006), a public facility regrouping three main institutions: The Municipal Library, Scientific Centre and the Brittany Museum created by Elizabeth de Portzamparc. Lately the Hergé Museum in Belgium, inaugurated last year, an elongated prism as “an imaginary space” inspired by the universe of Hergé (Tintin’s author) was awarded the International Belgian

Building Awards Prize; and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Hollywood, Los Angeles, commissioned in 2007 (postponed).

These community buildings can also be large public facilities, Law Courts in Grasse (completed in 1999), French Embassy in Germany (completed 2005), both created with Elizabeth de Portzamparc; Congress Centre in Paris (completed in 1999).

Currently two projects of note which will be delivered by the end of this year in Lyon: an hospital « Lyon Croix Rousse», and a county Hall «Rhône-Alpes County Hall».

• THE TOWERS created by C.de Portzamparc have been a result of his research of the vertical volume and its sculptural dimension, crystalising around his characteristic prismatic forms.

From the city to the object Christian de Portzamparc has worked on towers since his first projects, in 1974: a Water-Tower covered with vegetation, designed for a new city in Marne-la-Vallée, a poetic landmark; in 1991, his sculptural « Lille Tower» : a singular object built over a railway station in Koolhaas’s Euralille (completed in 1995).

The most widely recognised example being that of the «LVMH Tower» U.S.A. (completed1999) (Business week and Architectural Record award 2006), followed by the competition for the Hearst tower in 2000 and soon to be accompanied by the residential tower «400 Park Avenue» in Manhattan, approved by the City planning in 2004 and of which the site demolition started in May 2010.

Today, another tower “Carnegie 57” is under construction in New-York, slated for completion in 2013; an ultraluxury hotel will occupy the first 20 floors of the thousand foot high tower with 135 super-luxurious condominiums, many featuring breathtaking views of Central Park and the New York City skyline, above.
The Headquarters of French bank Société Générale at La Défense , the “Granite Tower” (completed in 2008), 603 foot high, is the first sustainable high rise building in France (label H.Q.E., French equivalent to the North American LEED)

• NEIGHBORHOODS AND CITY DISTRICTS are a major theme of C.de Portzamparc’s practical and intellectual contribution to the current architectural debate.
Recognising the central importance of the infinitely subtle human context, to which local conditions are grist to his mill; his interventions operate at a number of different levels: as an architect in the purist sense and as an urbanist.

In 1975, he created “Rue des Hautes Formes” in Paris (completed in 1979), a development of 210 dwellings on a plot located in an impasse in Paris. With this project, he demonstrated that a contemporary development could be woven into the urban fabric, transforming a site rather than denaturing it. Francis Rambert, famous critic and Cité de l’Architecture Director writes in “ D’Architectures” of May 2005 “….when Christian de Portzamparc created the ”Hautes Formes”, a page was turned in townscape history. This concept of urban transformation stemming from occupied voids leads him to research the concept of the “intimate block”, a form of micro-urbanism.

This reconsidered notion of urban scale, which in the 80’s he called “ l’ilot ouvert”, or the open block, revealed itself to be of a considerable fertility, as shown by numerous developments in a variety of different countries and situations, for residential areas, small “bits of city”, or simply buildings.

For instance a collective housing projects in Fukuoka-Japan (completed 1990), or dwellings in Grenoble, Nantes, Bordeaux; but also offices like TV-Channel Canal+ headquarters in Paris (completed 2000) or Head office for the #1 developer in France: Bouygues Immobilier (completed 2009), and mix used program for example housing and commercial center « de Citadel » in Almere, Netherlands (2006) (an OMA mass plan), …With the new district on the left bank of the Seine river in Paris the Massena neighborhood (1995-2010) he puts into practice his «open block» concept as an urbanist writing the rule book, employing 30 different blocks designed by as many different architects.

Sometimes the urbanist finds himself building within his own rules. This is the case with «les Jardins de la Lironde», an urban developpement adjacent to Montpellier(1999-2012) for which C. de Portzamparc created the overall urban plan and was also one of 20 architects employed in its construction.

In 2001, the Con-Edison East river project competition (New-York) allowed C.de Portzamparc to develop the “open block” principle into the vertical plane and by the same occasion to introduce this concept into the Manhattan street grid pattern. A work continued with his ongoing Riverside Center Project in N.Y.C for the redeveloppement of four entire N.Y.C blocks between West End Ave. and Riverside Blvd., the 59th and the 61th Street, along the Hudson River (U.L.U.R.P phase). Christian de Portzamparc won in 2009 the international competition to redesign the Rue de La Loi area in Brussels, the administrative heart of Europe (due for completion 2025).

Since 2008 he has formed a team that is currently working on the international consultation on the Parisian region as a post-Kyoto métropole «Le Grand Pari de l’agglomération parisienne »

PRINCIPAL PROJECTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

1998-2010 Croix Rousse Hospital | Lyon, France | CLIENTS : Hospices Civils de Lyon
2006-11 Rhône Alpes County Hall | Lyon, France | CLIENTS: Conseil de la Région Rhône Alpes
2002-11 “Cidade da Musica” – Concert halls, cinema, school of music | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | CLIENTS : The town hall of the city of Rio
2008-11 Cheval Blanc Winery | Bordeaux, France | CLIENTS : LVMH
2005-13 “Carnegie 57” Hotel and residential tower in Manhattan | New York, USA | CLIENTS : EXTELL Development Company
2002-12 “400 Park Avenue South” residential tower in Manhattan | New York, USA | CLIENTS : A+R Kalimian Reality
1995-2010 Urban project of the Masséna district | Paris, France | CLIENTS : City of Paris
1991-2011 Urban project “Les jardins de la Lironde “ | Port Marianne, Montpellier, France | CLIENTS : City of Montpellier

PRINCIPAL PROJECTS IN DESIGN PHASE

2009-14 “CasaArts”, cultural facilities | Casablanca, Morocco | CLIENTS : City of Casablanca and Foundation of the alive arts
2009-25 Urban development “Rue de la Loi “| Brussels, Belgium | CLIENTS : Brussels region, the European commission
2009- Urban & Metropolitan development “Le Bourget“| Grand Paris, France | CLIENTS : City of Le Bourget
2008-13 “Les Tresums”, residential development | Annecy, France | CLIENTS : Monné Decroix
2008-12 Boulevard Mac Donald, residential development | Paris, France | CLIENTS : ICADE CAPRI
[2007 postponed] The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures | Los Angeles, USA | CLIENTS : Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
2006- Urban and architectural project “Riverside City Center” | New York, USA | CLIENTS : EXTELL Development Company
2006-12 “Tripode” – housing, retail, offices | Nantes, France | CLIENTS : NEXITY-SARI

PRINCIPAL REALISATIONS

2004-09 Head office for the #1 developer in France: Bouygues Immobilier | Issy les Moulineaux-France | CLIENTS : Bouygues Immobilier
2001-09 Hergé museum | Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium | CLIENTS : Fanny et Nick Rodwell, « La Croix de l’Aigle » S.A.
2003-09 Marriott Hotel five stars Renaissance Arc de Triomphe | Paris, France | CLIENTS : Groupe ALTAREA – COGEDIM
2001-08 Société Générale tower | La Défense, Paris , France | CLIENTS : Société Générale
2004-08 Multiplex Europalaces-Gaumont | Rennes, France | CLIENTS : Europalaces (Pathé-Gaumont)
2000-06 “De Citadel”, housing and commercial center | Almere, Netherlands | CLIENTS : MAB/Eurowoningen BV

Christian de Portzamparc : news + building images

photograph © Nicolas Borel

French text:

Christian de Portzamparc architecte et urbaniste

Né à Casablanca en 1944, Christian de Portzamparc est architecte et urbaniste; diplômé de l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris en 1969; il fonde sa première agence d’architecture en 1980. Aujourd’hui c’est une équipe soudée de 80 personnes construisant dans le monde entier, établi à Paris avec des «satellites» sur les chantiers et des bureaux à New-York et Rio de Janeiro.

Christian de Portzamparc est le premier architecte français a avoir reçu la plus haute distinction en architecture, l’équivalent du Nobel : le « Pritzker Prize » en 1994.

Il est Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite,
Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur;
Grand Prix d’Architecture de la Ville de Paris 1990;
Médaille d’Argent 1992;
Grand Prix National d’Architecture 1998;
et Membre d’honneur de l’American Institute of Architects (A.IA.)

Le « Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme » lui a été décerné en 2004 par un jury international, saluant sa contribution à fabriquer et à penser la ville.

Le Collège de France a crée la Chaire de Création Artistique en 2005, Christian de Portzamparc en a été le premier titulaire.

Actualités

• Christian de Portzamparc lauréat du Stade Arena 92 à Nanterre, début des travaux prévu début 2012.
• Diffusion le 11 avril 2011 d’ « Empreinte » sur France 5, documentaire sur Christian de Portzamparc, produit par System TV, réalisé par Daniel Ablin.

Repères biographiques

• 2010 La Tour Granite du groupe Société Générale, premier IGH en France certifié Haute Qualité Environmentale (HQE®) pour sa construction, son exploitation et son utilisation.
• 2010 Prix International des Belgian Building Awards.
• 2009 Atelier Christian de Portzamparc lauréat du Prix «Most Innovative Companies in Architecture» par le site et magazine américain «Fast Company»
• 2008 Consultation internationale de recherche sur «Le Grand Pari de l’agglomération parisienne»
• 2008-09 Exposition « Portzamparc, In the City », Almere, Pays-Bas à l’occasion du prix de la meilleure réalisation architecturale des 30 dernières années décerné par la ville d’Almere
• 2008 Lauréat Prix Créateurs sans Frontières 2008
• 2007 Exposition « Rêver la Ville », ouverture de la Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris
• 2006 Premier titulaire de la nouvelle chaire de création artistique au Collège de France, Paris
• 2004 Exposition « Pluriel et Singulier », Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille
• 2004 Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme
• 1996 Exposition « Scènes d’atelier » au Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
• 1994 Lauréat du Pritzker Prize (équivalent du prix Nobel d’architecture)
• 1993 Grand prix National d’Architecture
• 1985 Préside pendant 6 ans l’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, à Paris
• 1969 Diplômé des Beaux-Arts de Paris

Projets

Du bâtiment au quartier, la ville est un sujet fondateur de son travail qui se développe parallèlement sur trois thèmes majeurs qui se recoupent :

Des bâtiments symboles qui rassemblent, qui attirent, qui font lien dans le grand paysage urbain, notamment de grands équipements publics (en cours de construction à Lyon le Siège du Conseil Régional Rhône-Alpes (2006-2011).
Le plus souvent ce sont des équipements culturels, voués à la musique comme la Cité de la musique Parc de la Villette à Paris (1984-1995), la Philharmonie de Luxembourg (1997-2005) et la «Cidade da Musica» en cours de construction à Rio de Janeiro, Brésil. Ce sont également des musées: le musée Hergé à Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique (2001-2009) et le Musée du Cinéma de L’Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (organisatrice des Oscars) à Hollywood (en étude).

Des tours sculpturales: fort de sa première réalisation architecturale, le château d’eau de Marne-la-Vallée, Christian de Portzamparc poursuit ses recherches sculpturales sur le thème de la verticalité, de la présence des tours dans la ville. Par exemple la tour LVMH à Manhattan, New York/ USA (1995-1999); et, en décembre 2008, a été inaugurée la Tour Granite de la Défense pour la Société Générale, premier bâtiment de grande hauteur certifié HQE en France. A New-York, le chantier d’une tour de 300 mètres de hauteur a démarré à l’automne 2010 (achèvement en 2013); et la construction de la tour de logements «400 Park Avenue» débutera prochainement.

Des petits quartiers et morceaux de ville: au sein de l’atelier, le «labo urba» poursuit une recherche théorique et pratique sur des méthodes qui permettent de faire la ville, parmi celles-ci, ce que Christian de Portzamparc appelle en 1980 «l’îlot ouvert». Il intervient sur des échelles très variées, qui représentent une expérience urbanistique mais aussi parfois architecturale comme c’est le cas pour le centre ville «De Citadel» à Almere (urbanisme: OMA).

Il intervient en tant qu’urbaniste et conçoit les règles du jeu à Paris, dans le quartier Masséna Seine rive gauche (1995-2010), et à Bruxelles Rue de la Loi (lauréat du concours international 2009- en cours). Parfois, il dessine l’architecture d’une partie du quartier. Ainsi à Montpellier, Christian de Portzamparc est l’un des 20 architectes qui construit dans «Les Jardins de la Lironde» dont il a conçu le plan d’aménagement (1991- en cours). A Manhattan, il agit en architecte urbaniste, et réalise le plan masse et l’architecture sur quatre blocs new-yorkais pour le projet «Riverside City Center».

Chantiers en cours

Architecture
2006-11 Hôtel de Région Rhône Alpes | Lyon
2006-11 Chai Cheval Blanc | Saint-Emillion, Bordeaux, France
2002-11 “Cidade da Musica” | Rio de Janeiro (Brésil)
2002-12 Tour de logements «400 Park Avenue»| Manhattan – New-York (Etats-Unis)
2005-13 Tour Carnegie 57 | Logements et hôtel | Manhattan – New-York (Etats-Unis)

Urbanisme
2005-12 Logements, commerces, bureaux : Le Tripode | Nantes
1995-2010 Aménagement urbain du secteur Masséna Seine Rive Gauche | Paris
1991-2012 Aménagement des “Jardins de La Lironde” et construction sur deux îlots | Montpellier

Etudes en cours

Urbanisme
2011 Grenoble Presqu’île | Grenoble
2010 Grand Roissy
2010 EURALENS
2010 Quartier Michelet | La Défense
2009 ORSA
2009 Pôle Métropolitain du Bourget | Grand Paris
2009 Rue de la Loi | Bruxelles (Belgique)
2009 Atelier International du Grand Paris
2006 Riverside Center | Manhattan – New-York (Etats-Unis)
2008 Grenoble-esplanade, urbanisme | Grenoble

Réalisations majeures

1998-2010 Hôpital de la Croix Rousse | Lyon
2004-09 Siège de Bouygues Immobilier | Issy-les-Moulineaux
2004-08 Nantes Praire au Duc | Nantes
2001-09 Musée Hergé | Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgique).
2003-09 Hôtel Renaissance Arc de Triomphe, Marriott | Paris
2004-09 Logements Bastide | Bordeaux
2001-08 Tour Granite pour la Société Générale | Esplanade de La Défense | Nanterre
2004-08 Multiplex Europalaces-Gaumont | Rennes
2000-06 Logements et centre commercial “De Citadel” | Almere (Pays-Bas)
1993-2006 Centre scientiﬁque, bibliothèque et musée “Les Champs Libres” | Rennes
1997-2005 La Philharmonie de Luxembourg | Luxembourg
1994-2005 Aménagement urbain de la Zac de la Porte d’Asnières | Asnières
2001-04 Siège du journal Le Monde | Paris
1997-2003 Ambassade de France | Berlin (Allemagne)
1996-99 Espace Lumière, bureaux et studios pour Canal + à Boulogne | Paris
1995-99 Tour LVMH , siège social du groupe | Manhattan, New-York (USA)
1994-99 Extension du Palais des Congrès Porte Maillot | Paris
1993-99 Palais de Justice de Grasse en Provence | Grasse
1993-96 Réhabilitation de « barres » d’habitation des années 60 et constructions rue et place Nationale | Paris
1991-95 Tour Crédit Lyonnais, au dessus de la gare Lille-Europe | Lille
1984-95 Cité de la Musique Parc de la Villette | Paris
1991-94 Immeubles de logements dans la ZAC Bercy | Paris
1989-91 Immeubles de logements | Fukuoka (Japon)
1988-90 Extension du Musée Bourdelle | Paris
1985-87 Café Beaubourg | Paris
1983-87 Ecole de Danse de l’Opéra de Paris | Nanterre
1975-79 Quartier de 210 logements, la rue des Hautes Formes | Paris
1971-74 Le Château d’Eau | Marne-la-Vallée

À lire

• «Paris Rive Gauche, l’ilot ouvert de Christian de Portzamparc» aux édtions Ante Prima.
• 2008 Catalogue d’exposition «Portzamparc, In the City », essai Hans van Dijk, Jong Hong Publishers
• 2008 «Writing and seeing architecture», Christian de Portzamparc & Philippe Solers, University of Minnesota Press, USA
• 2007 Catalogue d’exposition « Rêver la ville », Sophie Trelcat, Paris, Le Moniteur
• 2006 Architecture : figures du monde, figures du temps, Leçons inaugurale au Collège de France, Paris, Fayard
• 2005 Voir écrire, Christian de Portzamparc et Philippe Solers, Paris, Folio Gallimard
• 2003 Christian de Portzamparc, Gilles de Bure, Paris, Terrail
• 1996 Portzamparc, Arc en Rêve centre d’architecture / Birkhäuser
• 1995 Christian de Portzamparc, Jean-Pierre Le Dantec, Editions Du Regard

Atelier d’architecture Christian de Portzamparc – Key Projects

Key Buildings by Christian de Portzamparc, alphabetical:

Stade Arena 92, Nanterre, Paris, France
2011-

image from architects
Stade Arena 92

More information re Atelier d’architecture Christian de Portzamparc online soon

Location: 1, rue de l’Aude, 75014 Paris, France, western Europe

Paris Architects Practice Information

Christian de Portzamparc Architect – Background

Christian Portzamparc studied architecture in Paris; he received the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1997

French architects

Pritzker Prize Winner in 1994 – Pritzker Prize Architects

Website: www.portzamparc.com

French Architecture designs

Contemporary Architecture in Paris – architectural selection below:

Paris Architectural Designs – chronological list

Architecture Tours in Paris by e-architect

Paris Building News

2024 Paris Olympics’ Aquatics Center
Architects: VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4/

image courtesy of architects
2024 Paris Olympics Aquatics Center Building

Hôtel Lutetia, 45 Boulevard Raspail, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 6th arrondissement
Renewal Design: Jean-Michel Wilmotte Architects

photograph courtesy of architects office
Hôtel Lutetia

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Building

Buildings / photos for the Atelier d’architecture Christian de Portzamparc page welcome