A short lead time and minimal budget to produce an exhibition representing one’s country on an international stage would make any curator quiver. Yet one by one, curators and architects stepped up to the plate, debuting their efforts at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, which opened on August 29 and runs through November 21.

French architect Dominique Perrault is the curator of the French Pavilion this year. His project tackles the topic of "Metropolis." Perrault proposes that the terms "city" and "metropolis" need redefining in the 21st century. "For me, [the exhibition] is 'Metropolis?' — not an answer, but a question," he told ARTINFO. "The city is a historical term to explain a fixed situation," he said, noting that, in most of the world, "city" applies to a historic center that’s perceived to be at odds with the suburb or the country. "All these terms are weighed down by historical distinctions, and don’t take into account how these places are now different and constantly changing situations, with different populations and relativity to each other," Perrault continued. With urban policies still largely shaped by such traditional distinctions, Perrault’s exhibit will surely broaden the debate sparked by the Grand Paris project.

The Grand Paris — French president Nicolas Sarkozys personal grand project — involved 10 teams of luminary architects and planners, who were invited to produce a new master plan that would encompass the city’s outlying districts and propose revitalization strategies through denser, more sustainable, and mixed development, enhanced public spaces, and improved infrastructure and transportation links. The Venice exhibition includes the results of the ongoing Grand Paris workshops, and addresses France’s other major regional metropolises: Marseilles, Nantes, Bordeaux, and Lyon. Sarkozy was actively engaged in charting the French Pavilion’s direction, according to Perrault, who was an adviser on the Grand Paris initiative.

"When you consider the population of France, 62 million, then it is possible to consider the country as a metropolis in itself, a network of cities," he said, observing that the populations of the world’s largest urban agglomerations exceed that of many entire nations. Many of France’s largest cities have undergone major metamorphoses in the past decade, driven by state-sponsored megaprojects aimed at fashioning them into de facto global cities.

Perrault, who first gained international attention when he won the competition to design the French National Library in 1989, at the age of 36, now leads one of the most successful architecture practices in France, with roughly 60 architects, engineers, and designers working in Paris, Madrid, and Luxembourg on over two dozen active projects, mostly large-scale public or cultural commissions. In 2008 he was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Pompidou Center, the first at the national museum devoted a large-scale show to a French architect. The show included his designs for the Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul (2008), the Olympic Tennis Center in Madrid (2009), and the Marlinsky II Theatre, Saint Petersburg (2011).

Perrault continues to win major competitions the world over, last year scoring seven major commissions, a feat that he describes, quite sincerely, "as totally unusual." Here are a handful of his current projects:

Arganzuela Footbridge, Madrid, Spain (commissioned 2008, est. completion late 2010)

As part of Madrid’s revitalization efforts, the city buried the highway that once ran along the Manzanares River and created a new urban amenity, a 500-hectare park designed by Spanish architecture Ricardo Bofill. A series of bridges allows passage from one side of the park to the other, including Perrault’s Arganzuela bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. The structure appears to be a long tube formed by a spiraling ribbon of perforated metal. With a wood-slat floor, the bridge strives for material lightness in order to allow natural daylight to fall on the park below, while providing some shade to those who cross its 720-foot length. The bridge acts as both a marker and entrance to the park. Perrault’s newly completed Olympic Tennis Center, part of the city’s effort to win its 2016 Olympic bid, is also located in the park.

National Museum of Andorra, Principality of Andorra (won March 2009)

The commission may be a tiny museum in a microstate, but that didn’t stop major architects like Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, and Jean Nouvel from battling for the job. Perrault bested them in an invited competition with his proposal that maximizes the square footage on a minimal footprint. Perrault managed to get 123,000 square feet of built space from a 7,800-square-foot site area by building upwards, naturally, and also tilting outwards, creating a robust form that Perrault compares to a tree. The strategy allowed them to squeeze a little public square from the site, reflecting Perrault’s consistent concern for urban design. The projecting volumes are oriented toward views of the surrounding mountains, and the lacy, decorated façade gives the building a transparency and dynamism that softens its "intrusion" into this dense, historic village.

Sofia City Center, Sofia, Bulgaria (won April 2009)

With its entry into the European Union in 2007, Bulgaria has turned its focus on constructing a new city center in its capital, Sofia. Government administrative offices will be the lead occupants of this new district but the aim is to create a vibrant new neighborhood too, with offices, hotels, residential buildings, sports facilities, a cultural center, exhibition center, and a park. Perrault’s winning design proposes more of a landscape than specific architectural designs, an undulating "silhouette or skyline that fits in with the natural surroundings," in his words. Individual buildings, developed by private and public sources alike, would be circumscribed within Perrault’s flowing envelope. Despite its soft appearance, Perrault’s urban design has a hard basis, with an infrastructure, density, and building requirements based on sustainable systems for water, energy, waste, and transportation. The project is meant to be phased in over the next 10 years.

FFS Train Station District, Locarno, Switzerland (won June 2009)

In designing a new railway station in Locarno, the city also wanted a new public square that would accommodate new developments including a hotel, retail spaces, residential buildings, a convention center, as well as entertainment venues, in particular outdoor screening areas for its annual film festival. The most dramatic change introduced by Perrault’s design is the creation of an immense, 160,000-square-foot public deck, which covers the tracks and replaces several parking lots and streets that seemed to waste the site’s proximity to Lake Maggiore. The new station floats above the deck and resembles an open box, lids folded outward to form grand canopies. One of the most spectacular spaces is a rooftop terrace with clear views to the lake, and graded seating for open-air performances and film screenings. The old station remains at the end of the site, where Perrault has planted a series of torqued boxes on top of the old brick building, transforming it into a hotel.

Albi Grand Theater, Albi, France (won December 2009, est. completion 2013)

For this new commission, Perrault has designed a theater that responds to the Albi Town Council’s wish for a new structure that "extends the presence of the historic center," according the Perrault. Like most of the city, the 900-seat theater (which also includes a cinema complex and restaurant) will be built of brick, though the core volume will be sheathed in a mesh-copper tentlike structure that gives it a striking profile on the square. Light filters through at night, giving it the appearance of a glowing lantern. The mesh is not just for looks, however: it will offer sun-shading, as well as protection from rain and wind.

Dobree Museum, Nantes, France (won January 2010, est. completion 2015)

This unusual project involves the expansion and rehabilitation of a museum that currently occupies three buildings — the 19th century Palais Dobrée, the 15th century Manoir de la Touche, and the 1973 Voltaire building. Finding the existing ensemble charming and discovering that the gardens surrounding the museum were used by locals as a park, Perrault was not inclined to intrude in the space. Thus, he buried his interventions below ground. New galleries below grade connect the old buildings, though he has resurfaced the ground between the buildings. "In architecture we learn that we should develop shapes, that we should build strong, big, visibly, but minimal art can be a good reference for us," he commented. "It’s not necessary to build to be visible."