Cultural Centre Jean-Marie Tjibau “Bones from the past”
by Renzo Piano
Judit Lastres Aguilera Irene de Miguel López
INTRODUCTION: The Cultural Centre Jean-Marie Tjibaou celebrates the vernacular Kanak culture, the indigenous legacy of New Caledonia. It opened in 1998 and was designed by the italian architect Renzo Piano who named it after Jean-Marie Tjibaou. Assassinated in 1989 and leader of the independence movement, he saw the importance of establishing a cultural centre which blended the linguistic and artistic heritage of the Kanak people. Renzo Piano blended the Kanak building traditions with the resources of modern international architecture. He was inspired by the patterns and the formal curved axial layout commonly seen in Kanak huts, as well as by the landscape of the area. Marie Claude Tjibaou, Jean-Marie widow, observed: “We, the Kanaks, see it as a culmination of a long struggle for the recognition of our identity” Respect towards traditions and culture, as well as sensitivity to nature and being able to dialogue with such distinctive people make this project an exemplary masterpiece of architecture. KEY WORDS: -Vernacular Kanak culture -Traditional modernity -Passive ventilation -Transformative economic effect -Iconic shell -Fish bone structure
Judit Lastres Aguilera Irene de Miguel López
CONTEXT: Demography The cultural center Jean-Marie Tjibaou is located close to Noumèa, Oceania, in New Caledonia, french territory. Ubicated in a natural reserve along the seaside surrounded by lakes and mangroves, a place of a great beauty. It is a communitary centre, as well as an educational centre and a museum that includes facilities for permanent and temporary exhibitions, interior and exterior performance spaces, a multi-media library and a thematic landscape. The centre itself joins the Pacific cultures with modernity. Implicated population During the independence negotiations of the New Caledonia french territory, the french president François Mitterrand and his government compromised to built a centre for the promotion of the Kanak culture and dedicated to the memory of the assassinated political leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou. The project was quite controversial at first because of its monumental meaning. It evolved over a long period of research and intense debate. People had been removed from their natural landscape and habitat of mountains and valleys and any plan proposed for the art centre had to reflect this aspect. The planning aimed, as the architect stated: “to create a symbol, [...] a cultural centre devoted to Kanak civilization, the place that would represent them to foreigners that would pass on their memory to their grandchildren.” Issues The Renzo Piano “shelters” are built in a natural reserve along the coast, surrounded by a lake and mangroves, which create a stunning place of great beauty. However, a ridge separates the area from the sea, creating its particular ecology with strong easterly winds. Intense heat of subtropical sun was also another factor which affected the design of the building. It is located 10 kilometers from the city centre, being its main attraction, and a village itself, with its own paths, vegetation and public spaces directly in contact with the ocean. The project was conceived as a long-overdue recognition to a marginalized culture. Leaving politics aside, it is easy to see how the elegant design of Piano’s project became an object of esteemed international recognition, how it achieve to ubicate Nouméa on the maps, having also a huge impact in its economy. Ten of them stretch along the hillside, casting a commanding presence over the Pacific seaside. Within and between them, a carefully choreographed procession of
Judit Lastres Aguilera Irene de Miguel López
museum spaces takes visitors on a journey that mixes the private indoor spaces and the surrounding island landscape. Agents The agents involved are as humans as non humans: on the one side, the representatives from France and New Caledonia had a great influence in the execution of the project, the leader of the independent movement Jean-Marie Tjibaou inspired it, as well as the people from Kanak, the visitors that make it what it is today and, most importantly, the local people who were removed from their natural landscape and habitat. Thanks to their knowledge, culture and way of living, Renzo Piano was encouraged to create one of his most acclaimed work. On the other side, the project involved non human agents such as the island landscape itself, formed by the mountains and valleys. The sea, the lagoon, and especially the wind, which helps to fight the humid warm ecosystem of the area. Local vegetation is also an agent of the project, which was respected in its design, and included on the program for the complex, as it is built in a natural reserve. CHRONOLOGY: The main aim of the project was to become a tribute of a culture from the respect for its history and traditions. Its past, present and future, as well as its sensibility. That is the reason why the Cultural Centre is based on native settlements from that area in the Pacific Ocean. Their culture and symbols, even if they are so ancient, remain completely alive today. Sensitively using traditional Kanak chiefs’ houses as a starting point, the architects manipulated and deconstructed their form to create a monumental sequence of rounded, airy shells.
Judit Lastres Aguilera Irene de Miguel López
Strategies and difficulties The first strategy that was debated involved using the landscape to introduce the building. This is the way Kanak people understand the space. Renzo Piano created an “interpretative landscape path” that was conceived and implemented around each building with series of vegetative cover avenues along the path that surrounded the building, but separated it from the lagoon. From the beginning of the process, one of the main strategies for the project was the exploitation of the air currents. The decision came from the necessity of maximizing ventilation in such a humid climate. The project uses the topography of the territory, breezes of the lake and even vegetation to create ascending air currents, which will be dissipated by extraction towers afterwards. Another strategy used by Renzo Piano was the imitation of the distribution of a Kanak village. Its organization reflects those settlements, with several groups of shelters separated by roles and connected by pedestrian central paths in a fish bones shape.
The complex constitutes 10 buildings, all of them of a different size and function. Small ones are 63 square meters, medium ones 95 square meters and big ones 140. Heights are different as well, from 20 meters to 28 meters. All buildings are circular and they are gathered in 3 groups, each one with a particular function. The first part is designed for permanent as well as temporary exhibitions. It contains an auditorium and an amphitheatre. On the other hand, the second group of cabins is constituted by administration spaces, investigation laboratories, a library and a conference room. The last compilation is composed by studies for traditional activities like music, dancing, painting and sculpting. A covered way looking at the ocean connects the 10 structures, while on the other part we can see the thicken vegetation of the island. The shells sprinkle the landscape like
Judit Lastres Aguilera Irene de Miguel López
the Kanak huts, and just like them they allow the wind to pass through, hiding at the same time an efficient passive ventilation system. One of the main challenges of the project was its intention of taking advantage of the natural wind from the Pacific Ocean. The exterior façade is composed by wood. Wind filters from an inner layer of glass shutters that can open or close natural ventilation. The complex is completely made by Iroko, a type of wood which is highly resistant to humidity and insects. The Iroko structure presents a comb shape, imitating the cabins and Kanak craftwork. Its svelte ribs and the trips that put them together is perfectly integrated in the lush landscape as well as in the culture of local people. Mixing local and contemporary materials was a successful strategy: wood curved strips form the main structure creating a traditional fish bones shape that avoids the warping of the long sticks, while elements are joined by stainless steel diagonal braces, giving an efficient solution for the fastening of the buildings. Renzo Piano described this strategy as “curved structures similar to shelters, archaic containers with an archaic look, whose interiors are equipped with all the possibilities that modern technology offers.” Respect for local materials, light, wind and vegetation were always present in his design, providing protection from the climatic conditions while seeing it as an advantage.
Judit Lastres Aguilera Irene de Miguel López
CONCLUSION: To sum up, using as a reference Kanak’s architecture, Renzo Piano’s concept emphasizes the importance of an influential site and environment as a determinant factor of the design performance. Besides, the design wants to symbolize the Kanak culture, not just as an imitation of the local architecture but as a new approachment. The shape of the shells blends traditional construction methods with a dematerializing profile that beautifully integrates with the texture of the surrounding trees. Exterior holes open the project to the site and deepen the inhabitants sense of place. The effect is organic and eye-catching. The incompleteness of the shells paradoxically makes it seem like a work-in-progress or a work-in-ruins that is nevertheless satisfying. Perhaps these incomplete geometries reflect the sentiment that Kanak culture is continuing to grow and evolve from ancient roots, even as new conditions require it to adapt its form. An intelligent passive ventilation system removes the need for air conditioning, making the building’s clean, natural air supply an experiential part of the Center’s design. Furthermore, the hybrid double skin façade of the centre is a very effective environmental skin structure with several benefits over typical double skin façade. On one hand, the intelligent passive ventilation system which utilizes natural wind conditions to cool the internal environment, removing the need for air conditioning and making the building’s clean, natural air supply an experiential part of the Center’s design. On the other hand, the architecture exemplifies the remarkable synthesis of cultural and environmental conditions that celebrates Renzo Piano’s vision and the genius loci of New Caledonia. The formal resolution of the architecture uses modern building technology to create a continuation of the Kanak culture, while at the same time addresses the biophysical and psycho-cultural needs of its users, everything carefully related directly with the site, ground, vegetation and climate.