Congratulations to French architect Jean Nouvel, who has just been announced as the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2008.

This proves a bit of a boon for our friends over at Dezeen, who only last month gave Jean the honour of being their Featured Architect. Proof, were it needed, of their good taste.

Also, it’s probably quite nice for Mr Nouvel, whose eye-catching design for the Philharmonic Hall in Paris, below, is currently a work in progress. He was chosen for Pritzker Laureate because of his ‘creative experimentation and buildings that speak to their surroundings’ the jury said.

Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation said (quoting from the jury citation); “Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field.”

Like previous winner Zaha Hadid, Nouvel has many incredible designs which have sadly never been built but while looking at their combined back catalogues I have come to the conclusion that an architect’s success cannot be quantified by the number of buildings their name can be put to. Surely the idea, the design, is the crucial element - their “pursuit of new ideas” and stretching, or perhaps even breaking, the boundaries; making us think and re-evaluate the buildings around us. Once a design is agreed and building work commences it becomes a collaborative effort and the artist’s control is weakened. It reminds me of arguments regarding Auteur theory in cinema - essentially that an Auteur’s (usually a director) films reflect their personal creative vision but the collective nature of film making questions that - is it solely the director, would a change in cast, D.o.P. or producer have no effect?

In other news, if you’re looking to wow your geek or geekette perhaps this is the perfect ring for a proposal:

The Swarovski Crystal USB Engagement ring! Sadly these are just a concept at the moment but as you can already buy four Philips and Swarovski USB creations it’s probably only a matter of time before something like this is available. Whether any of us can afford them is another matter…

I have a nice, eco-friendly end to the week - according to the BBC, building work has started in Abu Dhabi on Masdar (”the source” in Arabic and meant here as a reference to the sun/solar energy), the world’s first zero-carbon, and zero-waste, car-free city.

Designed by Norman Foster of London architects Foster & Partners, Masdar City will cost $22bn, take eight years to build and be home to around 50,000 people.

Sounding reminiscent of something from Blade Runner, it will be powered predominantly by solar energy and residents will travel in pods set on magnetic tracks. According to Evelyn Lee at inhabitat the city will be entirely car free. “Carefully planned public transportation will ensure that none of the city’s inhabitants will have to walk more than 200 meters before meeting some part of the transportation link.”

There are suggestions Masdar City may be just a token gesture, or distraction from the oil-rich Gulf emirates and Business Week were tickled by the “delicious irony that the Middle East, awash in oil and dollars” were investing “oil billions into a zero-emissions metropolis in the desert”

But this project is just part of the Masdar plan for “energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development” and Masdar City is supported by global conservation charity the WWF.

This could be the dawning of a brave new world, but if it is I hope it’s a little less grey than the picture above!

The design of the London Olympic stadium has been revealed. It will be an 80,000 seat stadium of which 55,000 of those seats will be demountable making way for a 25,000 seat athletic stadium when the games have finished. This seems to be the focus of the design - creating a spectacular stadium for the event but very much taking into account the purpose of the stadium after the main event has finished.

A fairly revolutionary approach to stadium building, and a refreshing move away from the tendency with stadium building for each one to out do the next in terms of size and pomposity.

The overall design of stadium captures this idea of ‘legacy’ that the games organisers have been so keen to talk up in there never ending quest for ’sustainability.’ They’ve taken the softly softly approach with the design - the stadium will be shrouded in an unexciting sounding ‘fabric curtain’ and so far the pictures of the stadium have been bathed in a warm pink glow.

There’s obviously an agenda of doing it differently and opposing the kind of stadium design seen in the Beijing Olympic stadium with its astounding steel ‘birds nest’ structure. The problem is that whilst this is all very admirable the London stadium is a bit unremarkable. Which would you rather have as a legacy - a 25,000 seat open air athletic stadium or an 80,000 seat architectural behemoth?

The question is whether the promise of sustainability, and the insistence that the design reflects this, will really be enough to make it a truly great stadium?