Renzo Piano
The Architect's Studio
Louisiana Museum
Humlebæk, Denmark
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The Renzo Piano exhibition is the last in a series of four exhibitions focusing on some of the most innovative and influential architects practising today. The exhibition will be on view from June 5 to September 28, 2003
Renzo Piano founded the Renzo Piano Building Workshops as an international architecture academy where students and experienced architects work together in teams.
Throughout his career, Piano has aimed for an architecture defined by humanistic concerns and technical sophistication. His projects are united by a Genius Loci, a sensitivity to the particularity and culture of the site, coupled with functional analysis and constructional daring. Though each project pushes the envelope of technology, it is always done with great consideration for local conditions. Renzo Piano gained international fame in the late 1970's as the architect who, with Richard Rogers, designed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (971-77) that became the symbol of modern architecture. In 2000 Piano completed a renovation of the Centre where the only change made to the exterior, besides the sandblasting, was the installation of a weather-board canopy over the main entrance.
"We had to make a structure out of pieces of cast metal. The entire French steel industry rose up in arms: it refused point-blank, saying that a structure like that wouldn't stay up. But we were sure of our facts, and passed the order on to the German company Krupp. And so it was that the main structure of the Centre Pompidou was made in Germany, even if the girders had to be delivered at night, almost in secret. This was one case in which technique protected art. Our understanding of structures set free our capacity for expression." Renzo Piano now has an enormous amount of projects scattered around the world that range from private houses to industrial buildings, museums, airports, theaters, churches, bridges, master plans, boats and cars . "Renzo Piano's command of technology is that of a true virtuoso; yet he never allows it to command him. Deeply imbued with a sense of materials and craftsman's intuitive feel for what they can do, his architecture embodies a rare humanism. He has proven himself a master of light, and of a wide divergence of building types. Piano is a magician, rooted in the believable."
The roof of the exhibition spaces in the Menil Collection (1982 - 1986) museum in Texas is made up of repeating modular elements described as "leaves." Each leaf is a very thin section of reinforced concrete integrated with a steel lattice girder. They function as roof, ventilation and light control efficiently. "Paradoxically, the Menil Collection with its great serenity, its calm, and its understatement, is far more "modern," scientifically speaking, than Beaubourg. The technological appearance of Beaubourg is parody. The technology used for the Menil Collection is even more advanced (in its structures, materials, systems of climate control), but it is not flaunted." The Beyeler Foundation Museum ( 1992-97) is situated among the trees in a park near Basel, Switzerland. The structure is built around four main walls of the same length, oriented in a north-south direction and parallel to the boundary wall. The walls are of different heights and one extends into the park and becomes a low wall guiding visitors to the entrance. The transparent, cantilevered roof extends beyond the perimeter defined by the walls.
NeMo is a building for the National Centre for Science and Technology, with all its interactive scientific and technological exhibitions. Its roof forms a square overlooking Amsterdam.
The concept of the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center (1991-98) in New Caledonia is a genuine village composed of ten structures of different sizes and functions, the largest being as tall as a nine story building.
"The constructions are an expression of the harmonious relationship with the environment, that is typical of the local culture. They are curved structures resembling huts, built out of wooden joists and ribs; they are containers of an archaic appearance, whose interiors are equipped with all the possibilities offered by modern technology." The facades of the 15 story Maison Herms building (1998 -01) in Tokyo are entirely made of 45x45 cm specially designed glass block, the result of industrial development.
These materials are used to weave this "glass veil", creating a continuous and luminous screen between the serenity of the inner spaces and the buzz of the city.
A mobile sculpture by sculptor Susumu Shingu, overlooking this space from the entire height of the building, engages in a continuous play of light between the facade, the city and the sky. Construction just started on the steel and glass structure for the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Piano's design preserves the historic buildings and creates three new modestly scaled pavilions.
The London Bridge Tower, in the final design phase, is a high-rise, mixed use development in the central London borough of Southwark, by the river Thames. Located adjacent to London Bridge Station, it will be a modern solution to adding density to the city centre, taking advantage of one of London's major public transport hubs.
"I see the tower like a small vertical town for about seven thousand people to work in and enjoy, and for hundreds of thousands more to visit. This is why we have included shops, museums, offices, restaurants and residential spaces. The shape of the tower is generous at the bottom without arrogantly touching the ground, and narrow at the top, disappearing in the air like a 16th century pinnacle or the mast top of a very tall ship." Richard Rogers, Piano's former partner, recently said that the London Bridge Tower is the best design for a building he has ever seen and that it has the potential to become the greatest piece of modern architecture in London. Renzo Piano Building Workshop arcspace features Renzo Piano Building Workshop Piano explains that the reason for the name Renzo Piano Building Workshop, rather than Piano Architects & Associates is: "We not only design things there, but we also make things, and test them." The exhibition is designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and organized by curator Kjeld Kjeldsen. Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Complete Works
This book is the fourth of four authoritative and stylish volumes on one of the world's greatest contemporary architects, written by one of today's most important critics. This volume features outstanding recent works, including the Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia, the Beyeler Foundation in Basel and the Potsdamer Platz masterplan in Berlin. These are described and illustrated with photographs and drawings which chart their development through design and construction stages, to completion.
Buy a book at Amazon.com through arcspace, and a small portion of the proceeds from your purchase will go to support our efforts to keep you informed.
May 26, 2003 |
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