Jean-Lucien Bonillo

 

     The architect Renzo Piano (born in 1937 at Genoa) fits into the great tradition of a heroic modernity, an inventiveness, humanism and concern to be in synchronisation with all the other changes in society. That's why for Piano the challenge of the 21st century is to always be aware of "the fragility of the Earth".

From  his first commissions in the middle of the 1960's up to the present moment, Piano's buildings have never ceased to surprise us with their freshness. Far from limiting himself to a single style, a single signature, the architect's work is characterised in two ways: by the way in which each project takes energy and inspiration from its particular situation, and by the way he constantly and obstinately combines method and sensitivity.

In the filmed interview, Renzo Piano develops three themes which are at the heart of his thinking: creativity, the urban surroundings and poetry (invenzione, la città, la poesia). These are the three themes he used to structure an exhibition about his work in 2000, first at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (one of his most remarkable buildings conceived with Richard Rogers and Peter Rice, 1977) and at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

For him creativity means technical imagination: it includes a continually renewed structural alphabet as well as materials, the vast variety of building components and spatial and climatic systems. According to Piano mastery of construction remains the touchstone of an architect's job. Proof of this were his first six years as an architect which he spent without a design or building project, instead working exclusively on research about structures and materials

Urban environment is a term which does not really suit, but it's a way of saying the attention he gives to the project's surroundings, his care about the "spirit of the place" (Christian Norberg-Schultz). Showing off the specific aspects of the local geology, landscaping, history and identity, without either copying them or treating them with nostalgia. He prefers analogy.

Poetry can be seen in the sensitivity his buildings show for the atmosphere, and for the immense detail of surfaces, textures and combinations. His way of capturing, transforming and transmitting light is very much his own and one of his constant preoccupations. In all, the spatial qualities of his buildings are their fluidity, transparence, their lightness and the complicit dialogue either with nature or with the atmosphere of the town.

 In the present project we find the highest tower in London (The Shard London Bridge) the synthesis of all his preoccupations. Conceived round a core of re-inforced concrete, steel frame construction and an evelope of glass, the tower rises out of London with 87 floors and 310 metres high. The architect defines it as a vertical town in the heart of the city. Sited on a multi-modal transport hub the building combines offices, hotels and flats. A design specific to this building reduces the energy consumption by 30%, while the glass was specially studied to offer an unprecedented transparency.

Brief bibliography, but to the point

- Piano R., Chantier ouvert au public, Paris, ed. Arthaud, 1985.

- Bordaz R., Entretiens avec Renzo Piano, Paris, ed. Cercle d’Art, 1997.