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Jean Nouvel has won the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

So I give you:

Top Eight Reasons Why I Like Jean Novel:

#1. He’s ambitious. Like me.

“I take this prize as a strong incentive to continue increasingly demanding and ambitious work,” he said.

#2. He like to experiment. Like me.

Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, noted that the jury’s citation acknowledged the “persistence, imagination, exuberance and above all the insatiable urge for creative experimentation” of Nouvel’s work.

#3. He’s adventurous. Like me.

“For me, every building is an adventure,” Nouvel said. “Every project is an adventure. I research every project. I talk to a lot of people. Every building has a relationship to the climate, to the wind, to the colors of the buildings around it. I arrive at a concept with all the parameters in place. When I have all of these constraints, I begin. Without constraints, architecture does not exist. You are a sculptor.”

#4. He fights against architectural monotony. Like me.

“When you go around the world, you see all the same buildings, and you feel like you’re in the same place,” he said. “I fight all the time for the specificity of architecture. I fight against global architecture.”

#5. He’s not a fan of signature styles. Like me.

While some architects aim for a standout, Nouvel said the designs of his buildings are inseparable from their settings.

“I feel like every site has a right to have an architectural aesthetic,” he said. “Architects today try to create a little world, a petit monde, a micro monde. It’s important to try to create a building in its context.”

#6 He has an insatiable curiosity. Like me.

“He has a tremendous intellectual curiosity,” Jimenez said. “Each work is quite different than the other because of this fascination.

#7. He cares about context. Like me.

“It’s not like he’s bringing a particular brand and deposits that brand wherever he’s working. He’s more insightful and piercing. Nouvel looks at context, not in a literal way, but as an opportunity for new ideas and new connections.”

#8. He pushes the envelope. Like me.

Nouvel “has pushed architecture’s discourse and praxis to new limits. His inquisitive and agile mind propels him to take risks in each of his projects, which, regardless of varying degrees of success, have greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture.”

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