Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Genoa - Italy
Paris - France
Renzo Piano Building Workshop S.r.l.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Via Rubens, 29 16158 Genova Italy Tel. (39) 010 61 71 1 Fax (39) 010 61 71 350 email: italy@rpbw.com
34, rue des Archives 75004 Paris France Tel. (33) 1 44 61 49 00 Fax (33) 1 42 78 01 98 email: france@rpbw.com
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Beyeler Foundation Museum Riehen (Basel), Switzerland 1992-1997 It is a calm building with a simple plan, where the lightness of the flying glass roof contrasts with the solidity of the red stone of the perimeter walls. The museum consists of four bearing walls, running parallel to the site boundary enclosure. The exhibition spaces are linearly arranged. To give the art its proper value, the choice was made to use zenithal light: a steel framed glass roof with opaque glass north lights. The many layers of the roof deflect the incidence of the sun's rays, creating a diffuse and controlled internal light. The rarefied architecture of the museum provides the visitor with a space for contemplating the works of art.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop The Georges Pompidou National Centre of Art and Culture Paris, France 1971/1977 A multifunctional centre in the heart of Paris, covering an area of 100,000 square metres and entirely devoted to contemporary art, music, cinema and theatre. A revolutionary and versatile space where culture is in osmosis with the surrounding urban environment. The building was originally jointly designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Is is a humorous and coloured urban machine, not at all "high-tech", but rather artisan instead, as it was put together piece by piece.
All the functions of the building, including the walkways and the plant systems, have been moved to the outside and are characterised by a different colour, so as to obtain a vast and totally uncluttered area inside. The Centre Pompidou with its "piazza" form a single moulded setting, actively providing a resource of urban and social functions.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Extension to the High Museum of Art Atlanta (GA), USA 1999/2005 The intervention on the High Museum of Art is composed of three new buildings: a main pavilion, a building for special collections, and a building for administrative offices. The extension doubles the exhibition space of the museum originally designed by Richard Meier in 1983. The theme of zenithal light is once again pursued through a grid of 1000 circular skylights atop each building. The north facing skylights fill the gallery spaces with the required amount of light. The heart of the scheme is the new "piazza", which gives the project new life by linking the buildings, environment, and visitors.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Maison Hermès Tokyo, Japan 1998-2001 The elegance of the French fashion "maison" is translated into a transparent and thin building in the heart of Ginza: 14 floors above- ground and three below for a total surface of 6,000 square metres. A tower entirely wrapped in a crystal skin where a single square module of glass is reproduced 13,000 times to create the effect of a great japanese lantern lighting up at night. Every element of the building was designed to withstand earthquakes and absorb seismic shockwaves.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Zentrum Paul Klee Berne, Switzerland 1999/2005 A gift from the city to one of its greatest artists. The Paul Klee Centre is a multifunctional space: in addition to the permanent collection, it also houses temporary exhibitions, a concert hall, and a centre with ateliers for children. The shapes of the building recall the curves of the surrounding landscape, thus becoming an integral part of it. The Centre is composed of three hills made of glass and steel. Each "hill" corresponds to one different function of the centre, and runs through the life of the artist, who was a painter, a musician and a poet. The natural light, potentially harmful to the extremely fragile art pieces, is diffused by a system of translucent screens that delicately reflect the light.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Kansai International Airport Terminal Osaka, Japan 1988/1994 The airport, located on an artificial island in the Bay of Osaka, was built in 36 months by 6,000 workers. It is 1.7km long and can handle 100,000 passengers per day. The roof consists of a series of arches whose form and size are determined by research into the dynamic lines of air flow circulating the building. The general structure follows the movement of a wave, and its curves reproduce the image of a glider resting on the island. The shape of Kansai fits in perfectly with the surrounding environment of water, wind, and light.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church S. Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia), Italy 1991/2004 The church was designed to receive the increasing number of pilgrims visiting San Giovanni Rotondo. Though it is only 16 metres high, the church has a capacity of 6,500 people. The vast external precinct can hold some 30,000 on a surface of 9,000 square metres. The structure has a spiral-shaped movement: the dome sweeps down from the centre towards the precinct in a gesture of welcoming invitation. The technical challenge of the project lies in the use of local stone as a structural material: the church in fact includes about twenty stone arches arranged in radial fashion holding up the vast roof.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop J.M. Tjibaou Cultural Centre NoumĂŠa, New Caledonia 1991-1998 The Centre, entirely devoted to the Kanak culture, lies on a narrow strip of land surrounded by water. Ten pavilions modelled after the shape of traditional kanak huts, with heights varying from 20 to 28 metres, are at the core of the scheme. Organized in groups of thematic villages, the pavilions are immersed in vegetation, thus expressing the millenary kanak relationship with nature.
Housing cultural facilities (exhibition rooms, a library, an auditorium, an amphitheatre and studios for traditional activities), the huts are made of iroko wood, combined with steel and glass, and built respecting traditional construction methods according to the most sophisticated engineering studies. These contrasts are the expression of the essential challenge of the project: that of paying homage to a culture with its traditions without falling into a parody of it.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Auditorium Parco della Musica Rome, Italy 1994-2002 Parco della Musica is composed of three separate halls (Santa Cecilia, 2800 seats; Sinopoli, 1200 seats; Petrassi, 750 seats), whose forms are inspired by musical instruments. Positioned around an open-air amphitheatre, the halls look like three enormous "music boxes", whose colors and materials recall those of the domes dotting the urban landscape of Rome.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Reconstruction of the Potsdamer Platz Berlin, Germany 1992/2000 Reconstruction of an area of the town included between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. Cultural and commercial centre of the city in the 1930s, the district was destroyed by WWII bombings and turned into a desert by the construction of the Wall. With its surface area of 600,000 square metres, the scheme has the dimensions of a small town. And like a village, it is designed around a "piazza", the focal point of the project.
The entire project is made of eighteen new buildings, eight of which were designed by RPBW. The goal was to recreate a lively centre, well integrated to the rest of the city and harmonious in the use of materials, such as terracotta, common to all the buildings. A wide range of facilities, such as shops, homes, offices, restaurants, cinemas and a casino, have brought the site back to life.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Renzo Piano Building Workshop Punta Nave (Genoa), Italy 1989/1991 Perched on the slopes of a hill above the sea, Punta Nave houses the Genoa headquarters of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Composed of a system of glass terraces gradually sloping towards the sea, the building recalls the shapes of the greenhouses typical of the Ligurian coastline. Zenithal light plays here a major role: photosensitive skylights regulate light intensity thus pervading the interior spaces with natural light.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Menil Collection Museum Houston (TX), USA 1982-1986 Extremely meticulous and advanced research into natural light, and concern for conservation of works of art, were the two principal forces driving the design of the Menil Museum. A modular system of "leaves" covering the roof regulates the flux of light into the halls and is the building's main architectural feature. On top of the building is "The Treasure House", which houses the collection of 10,000 pieces of art. Selected pieces are continually rotated throughout the predominantly naturally lit conditions. The interiors are kept simple to encourage contemplation on the art itself.