
According to British publication The Telegraph, Jean Nouvel, Hon. FAIA, lost his court battle on Thursday to force alterations within the Philharmonie de Paris because he failed to provide enough information and documents to prove his case. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect claimed that the designs for the £280 million (about $302 million) Paris concert hall were not upheld, and filed this claim back in March. Nouvel also said the opening of the building was "premature" and the project managers did not respect technical building methods when overseeing it, according to his January editorial in French publication Le Monde. As a result, he did not want to be associated and wished to have any references of his name and image within 26 areas of the site removed—including the the parapets, foyers, façades, and the promenade.
The architect boycotted the January opening of the opera house. The inaugural event hosted high-profile French figures, such as the Orchestre de Paris and French President Francois Hollande. Nouvel also wrote a heated editorial for French publication Le Monde, in which he said that the architecture had been "martyred" and "the details sabotaged." The site also had a sporadic seven-year building period, affected by lack of public funds due to the recession.
The New York Times also reported that the center for performing arts will close its main hall this summer to continue the construction.
However, the Paris court ruled that the architect did not provide a sufficient amount of evidence that the original designs had been disrespected. According to The Telegraph, the court said the documents he offered "do not allow the court to assess the work asked for in its definitive state, both globally and in detail," and therefore the court was not able to decide whether the designs were compromised.
On April 16, Nouvel's firm, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, published a press release on its site regarding the case, which reads:
To learn more about Jean Nouvel, read ARCHITECT's coverage here.
This article has been updated since its publication date.