Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Genoa - Italy

Renzo Piano Building Workshop S.r.l.

Via Rubens, 2916158 GenovaItalyTel. (39) 010 61 71 1Fax (39) 010 61 71 350email: italy@rpbw.com

Paris - France

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

34, rue des Archives75004 ParisFranceTel. (33) 1 44 61 49 00Fax (33) 1 42 78 01 98email: france@rpbw.com

Auditorium Parco della Musica

Rome, Italy1994-2002

Parco della Musica is composed of three separate halls(Santa Cecilia, 2800 seats; Sinopoli, 1200 seats; Petrassi,750 seats), whose forms are inspired by musicalinstruments.

Positioned around an open-air amphitheatre, the halls looklike three enormous "music boxes", whose colors andmaterials recall those of the domes dotting the urbanlandscape of Rome.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

The Georges PompidouNational Centre of Art andCulture

Paris, France1971/1977

A multifunctional centre in the heart of Paris, covering anarea of 100,000 square metres and entirely devoted tocontemporary art, music, cinema and theatre. A revolutionaryand versatile space where culture is in osmosis with thesurrounding urban environment.

The building was originally jointly designed by Renzo Pianoand Richard Rogers. Is is a humorous and coloured urbanmachine, not at all "high-tech", but rather artisan instead, asit was put together piece by piece.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

All the functions of the building, including the walkways andthe plant systems, have been moved to the outside and arecharacterised by a different colour, so as to obtain a vastand totally uncluttered area inside.

The Centre Pompidou with its "piazza" form a single mouldedsetting, actively providing a resource of urban and socialfunctions.

Beyeler Foundation Museum

Riehen (Basel), Switzerland1992-1997

It is a calm building with a simple plan, where the lightnessof the flying glass roof contrasts with the solidity of the redstone of the perimeter walls.The museum consists of four bearing walls, running parallelto the site boundary enclosure. The exhibition spaces arelinearly arranged.To give the art its proper value, the choice was made to usezenithal light: a steel framed glass roof with opaque glassnorth lights. The many layers of the roof deflect the incidenceof the sun's rays, creating a diffuse and controlled internallight.The rarefied architecture of the museum provides the visitorwith a space for contemplating the works of art.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Extension to the High Museumof Art

Atlanta (GA), USA1999/2005

The intervention on the High Museum of Art is composed ofthree new buildings: a main pavilion, a building for specialcollections, and a building for administrative offices. The extension doubles the exhibition space of the museumoriginally designed by Richard Meier in 1983.

The theme of zenithal light is once again pursued through agrid of 1000 circular skylights atop each building. The northfacing skylights fill the gallery spaces with the requiredamount 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

Housing cultural facilities (exhibition rooms, a library, anauditorium, an amphitheatre and studios for traditionalactivities), the huts are made of iroko wood, combined withsteel and glass, and built respecting traditional constructionmethods according to the most sophisticated engineeringstudies.

These contrasts are the expression of the essential challengeof the project: that of paying homage to a culture with itstraditions without falling into a parody of it.

J.M. Tjibaou Cultural Centre

Nouméa, New Caledonia1991-1998

The Centre, entirely devoted to the Kanak culture, lies on anarrow strip of land surrounded by water.

Ten pavilions modelled after the shape of traditional kanakhuts, with heights varying from 20 to 28 metres, are at thecore of the scheme.

Organized in groups of thematic villages, the pavilions areimmersed in vegetation, thus expressing the millenary kanakrelationship with nature.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Kansai International AirportTerminal

Osaka, Japan1988/1994

The airport, located on an artificial island in the Bay ofOsaka, was built in 36 months by 6,000 workers. It is 1.7kmlong and can handle 100,000 passengers per day.

The roof consists of a series of arches whose form and sizeare determined by research into the dynamic lines of air flowcirculating the building. The general structure follows themovement of a wave, and its curves reproduce the image ofa glider resting on the island. The shape of Kansai fits inperfectly with the surrounding environment of water, wind,and light.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church

S. Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia), Italy1991/2004

The church was designed to receive the increasing numberof pilgrims visiting San Giovanni Rotondo. Though it is only16 metres high, the church has a capacity of 6,500 people.The vast external precinct can hold some 30,000 on asurface of 9,000 square metres.

The structure has a spiral-shaped movement: the domesweeps down from the centre towards the precinct in agesture of welcoming invitation. The technical challenge ofthe project lies in the use of local stone as a structuralmaterial: the church in fact includes about twenty stonearches arranged in radial fashion holding up the vast roof.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Zentrum Paul Klee

Berne, Switzerland1999/2005

A gift from the city to one of its greatest artists. The Paul Klee Centre is a multifunctional space: in additionto the permanent collection, it also houses temporaryexhibitions, a concert hall, and a centre with ateliers forchildren. The shapes of the building recall the curves of thesurrounding landscape, thus becoming an integral part of it.

The Centre is composed of three hills made of glass andsteel. Each "hill" corresponds to one different function of thecentre, and runs through the life of the artist, who was apainter, a musician and a poet. The natural light, potentiallyharmful to the extremely fragile art pieces, is diffused by asystem of translucent screens that delicately reflect the light.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Renzo Piano BuildingWorkshop

Punta Nave (Genoa), Italy1989/1991

Perched on the slopes of a hill above the sea, Punta Navehouses the Genoa headquarters of the Renzo Piano BuildingWorkshop.

Composed of a system of glass terraces gradually slopingtowards the sea, the building recalls the shapes of thegreenhouses typical of the Ligurian coastline.

Zenithal light plays here a major role: photosensitiveskylights regulate light intensity thus pervading the interiorspaces with natural light.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop