In 1994, he became the first French architect to win the Pritzker Prize. He was also the first to occupy the Collège de France's 53rd chair for artistic creation in 2006.
He studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where his professors inspired his passion for formal expressionism and systematic work on grids and networks.
His work included the French Embassy in Berlin, the headquarters of the French press group Le Monde, and the Philharmonie in Luxembourg.
His birthplace of Casablanca, Morocco, was still a French protectorate when he was born in 1944. His wife, Elizabeth, was also an architect.
He and Le Corbusier were both famed French architects.
