Le Parc Zoologique de Paris | photo by Iwan Baan

Current Work
Bernard Tschumi
Bernard Tschumi Architects
“Concept and Notation”

Monday, November 24th, 2014 
@7:00 p.m. 
The Great Hall 
The Cooper Union 
7 East 7th Street

Each year The Architectural League’s Current Work series presents the work of significant international figures, who powerfully influence contemporary architectural practice and shape the future of the built environment. Bernard Tschumi of Bernard Tschumi Architects will present his work in a public lecture.

Bernard Tschumi’s buildings and theoretical writings have significantly influenced architectural form and discourse for over forty years. A recent comprehensive retrospective of his work at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, provided visitors with a visual, documentary, and experiential survey of his practice. Tschumi’s design for the exhibition reflects his approach to understanding architecture, as he describes in the catalogue Architecture: Concept & Notation, “the art of inventing concepts in space through materials.”

Bernard Tschumi founded his practice in 1983 in Paris after winning the Parc de La Villette competition, his first major commission. He opened Bernard Tschumi Architects based in New York City in 1988, and Bernard Tschumi urbanistes Architectes based in Paris in 2002. Notable works include the New Acropolis Museum, Athens; as well as Le Fresnoy Center for the Contemporary Arts, Tourcoing, France; and the Limoges Concert Hall, Limoges, France. Current work includes Carnal Hall, at Le Rosey, the Swiss boarding school, as well as the Muséoparc Alésia, Alise-Sainte-Reine, France, and the Paris Zoo. Other current projects include the Vacheron Constantin Headquarters addition, Geneva, and the New Hague Passage, The Hague.

Tschumi’s recent book, Architecture Concepts: Red is Not a Color, is a comprehensive collection of his conceptual and built projects. Other publications include The Manhattan Transcripts, Architecture and Disjuctions: Collected Essays 1975–1990, and the four volumes of Event-Cities. His drawings and models are in the collections of several major museums, including MoMA and the Centre Pompidou. Tschumi is a professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation of Columbia University, where he served as dean from 1988-2003.

Recent awards include the National Academy Award for Excellence in 2012 and an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art in 2011. Tschumi was awarded France’s Grand Prix National d’Architecture in 1996 as well as numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects. He is a member of the Collège International de Philosophie and the Académie d’Architecture in France, where he has been the recipient of honors that include the rank of Officer in both the Légion d’Honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

> via archleague.org