Atelier Christian de Portzamparc

The Studio
Christian de Portzamparc was born in Casablanca in 1944 and received the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1994, followed by the Great Urbanism Prize in 2004. Christian de Portzamparc created his agency in 1980, and today it is a cohesive team of 90 people with offices in New York and Rio de Janeiro in addition to ‘satellite' offices near building sites. In 2006, the "Collège de France" created a 53rd chair, that of "Artistic Creation », and called on Christian de Portzamparc to be its first occupant. This month, the English version of his well known publication "Voir Écrire", conversations between Christian de Portzamparc and Philippe Solers, has been released in the United States, entitled Writing and Seeing Architecture.

Based in Paris, he has constructed worldwide. From simple buildings to urban re-think, the town is a founding principal of his work, which develops in parallel, and in crossover, along various major lines :
Iconic buildings feature in his body of work; urban reference points, symbols that draw together, attract, create a link within the large urban landscape, amongst which are notably large public facilities dedicated to music, such as the City of Music in Villette Park (1984-1995), the "Luxembourg Philharmonie" (1997-2005), the Hergé Museum in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, due for completion at the beginning of 2009 and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Hollywood, Los Angeles, which is now in design phase. The "Cidade da Musica", which is currently under construction in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is presently one of the largest building constructions in the world, with the number of workers on site reaching 3000 this summer.

Sculptural towers are also prominent in this field of work; landmarks such as the LVMH tower in Manhattan, New York, USA (1995-1999), and two towers currently under construction: Granite at La Défense, Paris, and a residential tower on Park Avenue South in Manhattan.

Neighborhoods and districts are also an important matter for Christian de Portzamparc; his current urban projects include the Massena district, on the left bank of the Seine river in Paris, due for completion in 2009. He is also one of 20 architects to construct the "Jardins de La Lironde", for which he has created the overall urban development plan, whilst the mixed architectural and urban project "R" is in design phase in New York.