Thus, the architect not only won the 2008 Pritzker Prize, but also won first place in the most important French architectural competition of the past few years.
It can be concluded that Nouvel is increasingly "growing" into the French power and business establishment (this is also evidenced, for example, by the implementation of the buildings of the Quai Branly Museum and the Paris Philharmonic, which are obvious "state orders"), but this does not at all affect the courage and the originality of his work: the architect is clearly not going to "rest on his laurels."
This is confirmed by his version of the 71-storey Signal skyscraper: it consists of four cubic volumes allocated for one of the functional zones (shops, cafes, public institutions; offices; a hotel with 333 rooms; 90 elite apartments). The spaces of each of the blocks will be organized around a huge glazed loggia, which will house a small garden and public space. The opposite side of the curtain wall of this room will be decorated with bright fractals inspired by the work of the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot; thanks to this, in the dark, these loggias will turn into glowing color squares visible from afar. The facades of the building will be clad with stainless steel panels. The skyscraper will consume only half the energy required for a building of this size (301 m high, 140,000 square meters): solar panels and wind turbines on the roof and mirrored window frames that will reflect sunlight into the premises; in addition, each of the four giant loggias will open windows so that these spaces can be ventilated during the summer months, rather than using air conditioning. It is assumed that the project will comply with the French HQE energy standard, the American LEED and the British BREEAM.
The Signal Tower will be the first building in France to achieve this level of versatility: it is intended to revitalize the La Defense business district, which is often criticized for its impersonal and even soulless architecture. It will be a key moment in the renovation of La Défense, which turns 50 this year. Now it is planned to demolish 17 dilapidated high-rise buildings there and build new skyscrapers, shopping and entertainment centers, arrange parks and public spaces. In addition to Signal, which should be built by 2013, plans have already been approved for the construction of the 300-meter Far Towers by Tom Mayne and the Generali bureau Valaud & Pistre by 2012, not counting a dozen others - designed by famous French and foreign architects.
But La Defense is only part of a large-scale development project for the Hauts-de-Seine department, covering the western part of Paris and its suburbs, actively supported by President Sarkozy. It is this, the western direction that will be "shock" in the general development program of the French capital "Greater Paris". And Signal should become the tower-donjon of this new "castle", Nouvel believes. And Patrick Devedian, chairman of the board of the Haut-de-Seine and president of the management company of Défense Epad, practically called the architect the new Gustave Eiffel, saying that his new building is the most significant event in the architecture of Paris since the construction of the Eiffel Tower.
It should be noted that Jean Nouvel's victory can be seen as a kind of revenge: in the early 1990s, he designed the 400-meter Infinite Tower for La Defense, which was never built.
However, the defeated - the other four finalists of the competition - need not despair: their versions of the towers also have a chance of being implemented. The fact is that, according to the terms of the competition, the architects prepared projects for different sections of the La Defense. And, given the scale of the current plans for its reconstruction, high-quality and interesting projects are very much needed there. It is already known that there is interest in the projects of Norman Foster and Jean-Michel Wilmott; and the Russian development company Hermitage, which participated in the competition in tandem with the architect Jacques Ferrier, is already buying land in Paris to implement his version of the skyscraper.
