Jean Nouvel paraphrases the Chinese artist Shi Tao (1642-1707): “A single line is the source of everything in existence.”
The calligraphy is the base of writing and this is the signature used by Jean Nouvel to design the project for the NAMOC, which has been finally declared as the winner proposal for the competition. The project has followed three stages since 2010, with the participation of seven chinese teams and thirteen renowned foreign offices. The design sets to hold on a strong and recognizable identity, the image of a booming country looking for reinforce their cultural picture. Its location in the north-south axis, which goes from the Forbidden City to the Olympic facilities, confirms the symbolism of the museum, which wants to link their antique collections of art and the contemporary ones, to which the Nation have been continuously collaborating.
Plancha de caligrafía china que sirvió de inspiración para el proyecto.
"I wasn't to change my religion so fast" says Jean Nouvel. "So that, it was necessary to immerse in the old culture of the country. I spent the first year and a half of immersion trying to understand the master's caligraphy, that one year later has turned into something obvious, the dialogue, the exploration, translation, synthesise and materialize the spirit of a civilization." it seems obvious that Jean Nouvel has became an enthusiast of the "qi", the spiritual approach of a basic principle that includes the whole universe and connects people and things between them and has got no equivalent in the West.
The landscape integration has been achieved in collaboration with Gilles Clément, creating in the area a red tonality garden with maples and gingko bilobas. Besides, the plantations has been put around the ponds which have the shape of a big dragon.
Nouvel was shortlisted for the project last year along with architects Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, but despite rumours suggesting Nouvel had won, there has been no official word on the outcome until now.
The competition to design NAMOC was conducted over three rounds, from December 2010 to July 2012. Earlier this month, Gehry unveiled his shortlisted design, which would have featured a facade of translucent, stone-like glass panels. Gehry's team created full-scale mockups of the panels in Beijing as part of the development process.
