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The renowned French architect Jean Nouvel begins his ambitious projects with small, sparse sketches that capture the essence of his ideas. When he finishes, he has generally created some of the most thoughtful and celebrated works of modern architecture in the world. While Nouvel’s portfolio – which includes such iconic buildings as the Arab World Institute (Institut du monde arabe) in Paris and the Doha Tower in Qatar – is diverse, his work is characterised by an interplay of light, geometry and symbolism that reflects both the culture of a building’s surroundings and its interior life. As premiered at the 54th New York Film Festival, Jean Nouvel: Reflections is both a visually stunning career retrospective, and an argument for how successful architecture should, in Nouvel’s words, ‘reflect a culture in a said instant’. (Meanwhile, critics of the projects in Doha and Abu Dhabi have pointed out reports of abuse of the migrant workers doing much of the construction work.)
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Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
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Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
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Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes
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Love and friendship
Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment
11 minutes
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Metaphysics
Simple entities in universal harmony – Leibniz’s evocative perspective on reality
4 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes