Paul Andreu (10 July 1938 – 11 October 2018) was a French

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, known for his designs of multiple airports such as

Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest inter ...

in Paris, and multiple prestigious projects in China, including the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He also designed an airport terminal in Dubai, that collapsed during construction.

Early life and education

Andreu was born at Caudéran (

Gironde Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,6 ...

), in southwest France. He graduated in 1958 from the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

and continued his studies at the École des ponts ParisTech, graduating in 1961. He next studied under architect Paul Lamarche in the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

, graduating in 1968.

Projects

Andreu was responsible for the design of numerous

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

s, including

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...

(Manila), Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (Jakarta), Shanghai Pudong International Airport in China,

Abu Dhabi International Airport Abu Dhabi International Airport ( ar, مطار أبو ظبي الدولي) is an international airport in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The airport, located east of Abu Dhabi city, is the second largest ...

, Dubai International Airport,

Cairo International Airport Cairo International Airport (; ''Maṭār El Qāhira El Dawly'') is the principal international airport of Cairo and the largest and busiest airport in Egypt. It serves as the primary hub for Egyptair and Nile Air as well as several other ai ...

, Brunei International Airport, and the

, and Orly Airport in Paris. Terminal 2E CDG collapse

He was in charge of planning and constructing

(Roissy) in Paris from 1967 on. On 23 May 2004 a portion of Terminal 2E collapsed, killing four people. Terminal 2E, inaugurated in 2003, is the seventh terminal at Roissy by Andreu, and has been described as one of Andreu's boldest designs. The collapse was attributed by the ad hoc administrative enquiry commission to a variety of technical causes and the lack of margins of safety in the design. Andreu blamed the collapse on poor execution by the building companies. Andreu's other projects included the

Grande Arche La Grande Arche de la Défense (; "The Great Arch of the Defense"), originally called La Grande Arche de la Fraternité (; "Fraternity"), is a monument and building in the business district of La Défense and in the commune of Puteaux, to the west ...

La Défense La Défense () is a major business district in France, located west of the city limits of Paris. It is part of the Paris metropolitan area in the Île-de-France region, located in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbev ...

in Paris (as associate of Johann Otto von Spreckelsen) and the National Grand Theater of China enclosed in a titanium and glass shell near

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananm ...

which was inaugurated on 22 December 2007. In 2008, Andreu was hired to design a cultural centre and ticket office in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

's new Quartier des Spectacles entertainment district.

Other activities

In 2011, Andreu became dean emeritus and chair professor of the Architecture Department at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, where he taught three months per year. In 2015 and 2016, he was a member of the Prix Versailles judges panel.Prix Versailles website
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References

External links

www.paul-andreu.com
Andreu's homepage * BBC News
Profile: Paul AndreuOfficial report of the enquiry commission

* * Gerhard Bissell
''Andreu, Paul''
in: '' Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (Artists of the World)'', Suppl. I, Saur, Munich 2005, from p. 344 (in German). {{DEFAULTSORT:Andreu, Paul 1938 births 2018 deaths People from Gironde Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni 20th-century French architects 21st-century French architects French civil engineers École Polytechnique alumni École des Ponts ParisTech alumni Corps des ponts Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Grand Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Zhejiang University faculty