Name: Ieoh Ming Pei
Nationality: American
Birth date: April 26, 1917 (1917-04-26) (age 92)
Birth place: Guangzhou (Canton), China
Work Practice name: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Significant buildings:
•Louvre Pyramid
•Bank of China Tower
•Javits Convention Center
•East Building, National Gallery of Art
•Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
Awards and prizes:
•AIA Gold Medal
•Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Pritzker Prize
Presented by: Ankit Singh, B. Arch IV, 061005
Philosophy
•Although he is remembered for his buildings, I. M. Pei's greatest
influence on the architectural world is his philosophy of design.
Just as his designs integrate aesthetics with functionality, Pei
himself epitomizes the resolution of both an artist and engineer.
•He believed that the only issue of contemporary concern was life
itself; buildings should be created as living spaces -- spaces of
activity and thought – rather than static monuments.
•An unusual dialogue between two very different and very
important cultures: east and west.
•Interplay between geometry and light
•The relationship between site and building design
•Due to his reliance on abstract form and materials such as stone,
concrete, glass, and steel, Pei has been considered a disciple of
Walter Gropius.
•To the architectural world, Pei legacy is his belief that
architecture "is the mirror of life itself."
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART- EAST WING
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART- EAST WING
PROBLEM
•The new building had to fit an
irregularly shaped, trapezoidal
site.
•Harmonize with John Russell
Pope's classicizing West Building.
•Two different buildings were
required: a museum to house
large travelling exhibitions, and
also a separate study-center /
office facility .
SOLUTION
•The trapezoidal site was sliced
into two triangles — one for each
function — with a triangular
atrium unifying the whole.
•In plan, section and elevation,
the interlocking volumes merge
inseparably.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART- EAST WING
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART- EAST WING
•"H"-shaped façade matches the
equally severe walls of the West
Building.
•To correspond in texture and
color to the original building, the
new one is faced inside and out
with lavender-pink marble from
the same quarry.
•This structure interlocks complex,
shifting triangular shapes. To
emphasize these sharp angles,
lighter stone was chosen for all the
East Building's vertical corners.
•The new and old buildings are
functionally united into an
integrated whole by an
underground tunnel animated by
prismatic skylights, and a
waterwall.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART- EAST WING
•The sky lit atrium at the
heart of the East Wing is a
hub of circulation and
orientation.
•Organized around it are
three flexible towers
designed to permit the
exhibition of one large or
multiple small shows.
•Adjacent to the public
museum is the integral,
Study Center, which,
housed in a smaller
triangle, provides a lightfilled reading room and
library stacks, as well as
offices for scholars,
curators and
administrators.
LOVURE-PARIS
•A grand entrance to the museum with a
larger-than-life 70-foot glass pyramid
surrounded by a triad of smaller pyramids
and reflecting pools.
•This new entrance, which connected a
large underground reception area to the
existing art galleries, was lauded
internationally.
•The concept behind the Pei Pyramids was,
to create a modern space without taking
away from the elegance of the existing
structure.
• The triangular geometry of the pyramid
encompasses a small, unobtrusive volume,
yet creates a distinct space that captures
light and has surface identification.
• Similarly, by using the Egyptian concept of
the pyramids, the new structure would be
both more ancient and more modern than
the existing Louvre.