Bernard Tschumi’s career is rooted in both teaching and theoretical research. After studying architecture at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), he taught at the Architectural Association in London, then at Princeton University, at the Cooper Union, and finally at Columbia University, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Architecture between 1988 and 2003.
He is the author of several books and theoretical essays, including “Manhattan Transcripts, Architecture and Disjunction”, the “Event-Cities” series, and most recently “Architecture concepts: Red is not a colour”. Winner of the international competition for design of the “Parc de la Villette” in Paris, Bernard Tschumi is a renowned architect with a wide range of projects to his credit, including Le Fresnoy Arts Centre, the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, the Zénith concert halls in Rouen and Limoges in France, Lerner Hall at Columbia University, the School of Architecture at the University of Florida in Miami, the New National Theatre in Tokyo and the headquarters of the Vacheron Constantin watch manufacturer in Geneva.
In 1996, he was awarded France’s national “Grand prix” for architecture, in recognition of his challenging and outstanding career, as well as his thinking, research and teaching. His work is based on the movement/event/space trilogy, which intrinsically combines intellectual awareness and physical experience. It has been the subject of several exhibitions, at the MoMA in New York (1994) and the Venice Biennale (2006). The Centre Pompidou has also devoted a major retrospective to his work.
Bernard Tschumi’s hallmark is a style which cannot be pigeonholed. The common denominator in his buildings is his philosophy that you should always start with a question, because you should never think you already know the answer.