Dominique Perrault: Meta-Buildings

Dominique Perrault, the force behind the four colossal projects showcased here, defines a meta-building as "a structure that exceeds the customary dimensions of a building to encompass a landscape or a city, both physically and conceptually." She continues, "I believe the future of our towns lies in meta-buildings, for reasons of energy consumption, social relations, transportation and urbanity. Buildings of this type almost act in an urban manner. In a sense they're a kind of city in themselves." That thesis might be controversial, but it's hard to debate the power of Perrault's projects, the prismatically-shaped Marinsky II Theater, on a canal in historic St. Petersburg, the winged Olympic Tennis Stadium in Madrid, the high-rise Donnau-City Gate in Vienna, and the lawn-covered Ewha Women's University Campus Center in Seoul. Perrault, who has won the World Architecture Award and the Mies van der Rohe Award, is best known for Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale.