renzo piano foundation publications...1977, paris, france. forty years after the inauguration of the...

Renzo Piano FoundationPublications

A book a year. Because it takes a year to construct a building (on paper).

Since 2007, every twelve months, the Renzo Piano Founda-tion has published a monograph devoted to the most iconic projects worldwide by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in more than 50 years’ work.The history of the buildings is followed by an account of the day of the meeting with the client and then the opening to the public, through the story of each phase: the site inspection and the first sketch, the project and its variants, teamwork, the search for solutions and materials, experimentation and prototypes, difficulties and challenges, adventures on the con-struction site, and finally the handover of the building to the public and the city. This long account recounted in images ends with a text by Renzo Piano, who personally reconstructs the history of each project. Each volume is enriched by the testimony of those who took part in the project and marked its destiny: they may be RPBW partners or engineers, or even anthropologists, scientists, botanists, landscape architects and curators. The portrait of a building consists of many voices, in every case different. All the material we use comes from the research and catalo-guing work of the Renzo Piano Foundation’s archives: you will find unpublished sketches and drawings, design options and details that will never be published elsewhere, photos of the team at work and each phase of construction work.

A book a year

2017, Santander, Spain.

Another museum and cultural center overlooking the promenade of Santander, in northwest Spain. The relationship between Renzo Piano and Emilio Botín and their shared love for the sea, which becomes part of the project. An intervention that enables a view of the water to be a part of the city. How to raise a 5,000-ton building off the ground. Work on light and its reflections: the choice of ceramic.

Pages Seize No. illustrationsBinding Paperback Text ISBN

21228 x 28 cm380with double inside flapEnglish / Spanish978-88-6264-018-3

1977, Paris, France.

Forty years after the inauguration of the Centre Pompidou, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers get together and recount as a duo the extraordinary human and professional experience of their debut. Much more than the story of this “spaceship” that landed in the heart of Paris: it is the beginning of their adventure told in the first person. From the phone call announcing their victory to the building today. In the volume drawings, photos and unpublished testimonies.


24828 x 28 cm472with double inside flapEnglish / Italian978-88-6264-000-8

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The roof is a large solar energy collector: covering one hectare, the panels produce 2.5 megawatts, sufficient for the Cultural Center’s basic needs.

Η οροφή είναι ένας μεγάλος ηλιακός συσσωρευτής: 10 στρέμματα ηλιακοί συλλέκτες που παράγουν 2,5 μεγαβάτ, επαρκή για τις βασικές ανάγκες του Πολιτιστικού Κέντρου.

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La Biblioteca è una prosecuzione dell’agora, che si trova allo stesso livello. Ha una doppia funzione: è Nazionale, e quindi custodisce l’intera produzione editoriale greca, ma è anche Pubblica, aperta a tutti i cittadini.The library is a continuation

of the agora, being set on the same level. It has a twofold function: it is the National Library and so holds all Greek publications, but it is also a public library and open to all citizens.

La Biblioteca è una prosecuzione dell’agorà, che si trova allo stesso livello. Ha una doppia funzione: è Nazionale, e quindi custodisce l’intera produzione editoriale greca, ma è anche Pubblica, aperta a tutti i cittadini.

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Nella pagina seguente. 25 Giugno 2014: siamo arrivati alla sommità della collina. Per festeggiare viene organizzato un “balletto” orchestrato dalla Filarmonica di Atene. Ma a volteggiare sono le 11 gru impiegate nel cantiere.

On the next page June 25, 2014: we have reached the top of the hill. To celebrate it a ‘ballet’ is organized, orchestratedby the Athens Philharmonic.The ‘dancers’ are the 11 cranes used on the construction site.

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We worked extensively on modeling the slopes, which are not regular but form a coherent path with a gradient of no more than 5 or 6%. This means it is never steep and is accessible – an important point – even to people with impaired mobility. The oblique paths make it possible to ascend the park with minimal effort.

Abbiamo lavorato a lungo sulle pendenze della collina, che non sono costanti ma formano un percorso coerente, che lungo il cammino non supera mai il 5 o 6 % di inclinazione per non essere faticoso e adatto, dato importantissimo, anche a persone con problemi di mobilità. I percorsi obliqui permettono di salire lungo il parco con minore fatica.

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Κέντρο Πολιτισμού Ίδρυμα Σταύρος Νιάρχος

Αυτή η περιπέτεια, όπως και πολλές άλλες, αρχίζει με τη συνάντηση δύο ανθρώπων.Ο πρώτος είναι ο Ανδρέας Δρακόπουλος, πραγματική κινητήρια δύναμη αυτού του έργου, και ο δεύτερος είμαι εγώ.Γνωριστήκαμε τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2007 στο εστιατόριο της Morgan Library, στη Νέα Υόρκη.Κι ανάμεσά μας υπήρξε από την πρώτη στιγμή αυτό που οι Αμερικανοί αποκαλούν chemistry, η ευτυχής χημεία που δημιουργείται ανάμεσα σε αγνώστους. Μια αναπάντεχη σύμπνοια, την οποία στη συνέχεια καλλιεργήσαμε και τροφοδοτήσαμε με το πέρασμα του χρόνου, δουλεύοντας μαζί, σε πολύ στενή συνεργασία.Ο Ανδρέας είναι ανιψιός του Σταύρου Νιάρχου και σήμερα είναι πρόεδρος και διευθυντής του Ιδρύματος που φέρει το όνομα του θείου του: του Stavros Niarchos Foundation (Κοινωφελούς Ιδρύματος Σταύρος Νιάρχος). Εκείνη την ημέρα όμως γνώρισα και τα παιδιά του Σταύρου: τον Σπύρο, τον Φίλιππο και τη Μαρία Νιάρχου. Ήταν σαν μια οικογενειακή συγκέντρωση στην οποία είχα κληθεί να συμμετάσχω κι εγώ. Και πράγματι αυτό το έργο ήταν μια ισχυρή επιθυμία της οικογένειας, είχε καλλιεργηθεί από καιρό, πολύ προτού η Ελλάδα βυθιστεί στην οικονομική κρίση των τελευταίων χρόνων.Πρόθεσή τους ήταν να συνδυάσουν σε ένα και μοναδικό συγκρότημα πολλές δραστηριότητες, όπου θα συνυπήρχαν ένα μεγάλο πάρκο, μια αίθουσα μουσικής και όπερας και μια βιβλιοθήκη. Είχαν ήδη αποφασίσει και τον χώρο για την ανέγερσή του.Στην Αθήνα υπάρχει ήδη η Εθνική Λυρική Σκηνή, που φιλοξενεί τις παραστάσεις όπερας, όμως το κτίριο δεν ανταποκρίνεται πλέον στις απαιτήσεις της παγκόσμιας λυρικής παραγωγής και κινδύνευε να αποκλειστεί από αυτή. Το ίδιο ίσχυε και για την υπάρχουσα Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη, της οποίας ο χώρος δεν επαρκούσε πια.Το Ίδρυμα Σταύρος Νιάρχος δεν προκήρυξε διαγωνισμό, παρά επέλεξε κάποιους αρχιτέκτονες, τους οποίους συγκάλεσε στη Ζυρίχη τον Ιανουάριο του 2008, για μια συζήτηση με το Διοικητικό του Συμβούλιο.Σε αυτή την πιο επίσημη συνάντηση παρεισέφρησε ένα απρόβλεπτο στοιχείο, το οποίο όμως είχε κάποια βαρύτητα:

η τύχη. Πράγματι, από μια, θα έλεγα, απίστευτη σύμπτωση, εγώ γνώριζα ήδη την τοποθεσία.Περίπου έναν χρόνο πριν, με είχε καλέσει στην Ελλάδα ο Jean-Louis Dumas, ο οποίος μου είχε αναθέσει την κατασκευή των γραφείων της Maison Hermès στο Τόκιο. Με τον Jean-Louis και τη σύζυγό του Ρένα είχαμε δημιουργήσει από καιρό μια καλή φιλία, την οποία καλλιεργούσαμε με συχνές συναντήσεις μας στο Παρίσι ή σε άλλα μέρη του κόσμου. Τη χρονιά εκείνη είχαμε κανονίσει να περάσουμε λίγες μέρες στο σκάφος. Όμως το ταξί που μας μετέφερε στο λιμάνι έτρεχε πολύ και μας σταμάτησε η Τροχαία ακριβώς στο σημείο όπου σήμερα γεννήθηκε το έργο για το Ίδρυμα Σταύρος Νιάρχος. Μείναμε εκεί, ακινητοποιημένοι επί μισή ώρα, όσο χρειάστηκε στον αστυνομικό να γράψει το πρόστιμο στον οδηγό του ταξί και σ’ εμένα να περιεργαστώ τον χώρο γύρω μου περιμένοντας να φύγουμε. Χωρίς να το ξέρω, είχα κάνει την πρώτη μου επίσκεψη στην τοποθεσία, χρόνια προτού ακούσω να γίνεται λόγος για το έργο. Όταν συναντηθήκαμε στη Ζυρίχη, το μυαλό μου πήγε πάλι σ’ εκείνη την πρώτη φορά που είχα δει τον χώρο, ενόσω ο ευσυνείδητος αστυνομικός έγραφε τη μακροσκελή αναφορά του.Όχι πως είχα και πολλά να παρατηρήσω: ήταν μια μεγάλη έκταση, έρημη, ακριβώς μπροστά στο Φάληρο, το πρώτο λιμάνι της Αθήνας, το οποίο στη συνέχεια εγκαταλείφθηκε και με τα χρόνια μεταμορφώθηκε σε ένα ωραίο προάστιο της πόλης. Πριν από χρόνια φιλοξενούσε κι έναν ιππόδρομο, που επίσης έχει πέσει σε αχρηστία. Κι όμως, εγώ είχα διατηρήσει μια αρκετά σαφή ανάμνηση από όλα αυτά. Εξάλλου, γνώριζα αρκετά καλά την Αθήνα, είχε τύχει να την επισκεφτώ πολλές φορές.Στη διάρκεια εκείνης της πρώτης συνάντησης κάναμε αμέσως τη σκέψη να σχεδιάσουμε ξεκινώντας από το οικόπεδο όπως ήταν διαμορφωμένο. Περίπου έναν μήνα αργότερα, στη δεύτερη επιτόπια επίσκεψη, ξεκαθαρίσαμε καλύτερα τις ιδέες μας: η Αθήνα είναι μια πόλη χτισμένη χαμηλά, κοντά στο επίπεδο της θάλασσας· για να τη δει κανείς καλά πρέπει να υψωθεί λίγο από το έδαφος. Αυτό ακριβώς κάναμε για να παρατηρήσουμε τη συνοικία της Καλλιθέας, όπου έμελλε να υλοποιηθεί το έργο.Η Καλλιθέα έχει δυστυχώς χάσει την αρχική σημασία του ονόματός της, την «καλή θέα», γιατί εδώ και πολύ

2016, Athens, Greece.

The redevelopment of a semi-abandoned site, the former home of the racecourse, which finds its natural connection with the rest of the city and the sea. A National Library to house some 750,000 volumes, an Opera House and a large public park in the area of Falero, the ancient port of Athens. A project that grows out of the topography: the hill is raised to accommodate the buildings and make space for greenery. In this way a park of 166,000 square meters is born, with 30,500 trees and 35,000 shrubs. Adventures on the building site: construction of a one-hectare canopy in ferroce-ment.



2015, New York, USA.

Another museum dedicated to contemporary American art, with 21,000 works by 3,000 artists. The complicated story of a building that “returned home” by traversing New York to land up in the old industrial Meatpacking district. A “vessel” of 19,500 square meters, weighing 28,000 tons, raised off the ground. The dialogue with the city and the Hudson River. Adventures on the construction site: the arrival of Hurricane Sandy that changed the project.



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L’idea di costruire un monastero partiva dal desiderio di rendere la collina di Ronchamp abitata, di restituirle una presenza umana.

The idea of the hill at Ronchamp would be inhabited, to restore a human presence.

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L’idea di costruire un monastero partiva dal desiderio di rendere la collina di Ronchamp abitata, di restituirle una presenza umana.

The idea of building a monastery grew out of the desire to ensure the hill at Ronchamp would be inhabited, to restore a human presence.


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Anche il colore ha avuto un ruolo molto importante. Basta guardare le foto: il cemento è un grigio molto luminoso che gioca con le ombre e le luci, e poi ci sono i colori caldi, rossi e arancioni, che fanno capolino sui muri delle stanze e nei corridoi.

Colour also has a very important part. Just look at the photos: the concrete is a very luminous grey that plays with the light and shade, while warmer colours, red and orange, are glimpsed on the walls of the rooms and corridors.

Milly Rossato Piano, Brigitte de Singly, Paul Vincent, Florian Bolle


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Anche il colore ha avuto un ruolo molto importante. Basta guardare le foto: il cemento è un grigio molto luminoso che gioca con le ombre e le luci, e poi ci sono i colori caldi, rossi e arancioni, che fanno capolino sui muri delle stanze e nei corridoi.

Colour also has a very important part. Just look at the photos: the concrete is a very luminous grey that plays with the light and shade, while warmer colours, red and orange, are glimpsed on the walls of the rooms and corridors.


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Today we will be speaking about the Ronchamp monastery and its porterie.As I often say, it’s difficult to reconstruct the precise moment a project begins. Sometimes you lose track of it because the proposal comes in while you’re busy on other jobs, or distracted by a deadline, or too engrossed in the complexities of a construction site. So, looking back, it is often complicated to pick out the exact starting point. I do remember that in 2004, hence two years before the official commission, the talk in the office was about the idea of designing a new porterie or reception building for visitors to Ronchamp chapel in Belfort.But the project officially began quite definitely in 2006, when Germain Viatte called in at our Paris office. I already knew him, since he had been director of the modern art museum at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Germain is an important curator, with a profound knowledge of art, and he’s a great humanist, with a special ability to see things from all sides with a broad, all-round vision.Germain told me that, in addition to the new porterie, the Œuvre Notre Dame du Haut association, which would become our client, was planning to embed a small monastery for Poor Clares in the hillside.So for the second time in my career I found myself working on a religious building. The previous experience with the shrine dedicated to Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, had been wrapped up in 2004. It was a very challenging and somewhat troubled experience. True, that project was also for a place of faith, meditation and worship, but it was an enormous shrine, intended to host thousands of pilgrims. What’s more, I had to cope with a kind of secularization that had turned San Giovanni Rotondo into something very like a tourist phenomenon. A few years had gone by and now I was faced with the task of designing a small monastery for 12 nuns, which gave me the scope to reason, and so plan, in a radically different way.Firstly through the relationship with the Poor Clares, which was one of the adventures of this project. Their Order is part of the Franciscan family, established

Ronchamp


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Ronchamp Ronchamp

Today we will be speaking about the Ronchamp monastery and its porterie.As I often say, it’s difficult to reconstruct the precise moment a project begins. Sometimes you lose track of it because the proposal comes in while you’re busy on other jobs, or distracted by a deadline, or too engrossed in the complexities of a construction site. So, looking back, it is often complicated to pick out the exact starting point. I do remember that in 2004, hence two years before the official commission, the talk in the office was about the idea of designing a new porterie or reception building for visitors to Ronchamp chapel in Belfort.But the project officially began quite definitely in 2006, when Germain Viatte called in at our Paris office. I already knew him, since he had been director of the modern art museum at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Germain is an important curator, with a profound knowledge of art, and he’s a great humanist, with a special ability to see things from all sides with a broad, all-round vision.Germain told me that, in addition to the new porterie, the Œuvre Notre Dame du Haut association, which would become our client, was planning to embed a small monastery for Poor Clares in the hillside.So for the second time in my career I found myself working on a religious building. The previous experience with the shrine dedicated to Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, had been wrapped up in 2004. It was a very challenging and somewhat troubled experience. True, that project was also for a place of faith, meditation and worship, but it was an enormous shrine, intended to host thousands of pilgrims. What’s more, I had to cope with a kind of secularization that had turned San Giovanni Rotondo into something very like a tourist phenomenon. A few years had gone by and now I was faced with the task of designing a small monastery for 12 nuns, which gave me the scope to reason, and so plan, in a radically different way.Firstly through the relationship with the Poor Clares, which was one of the adventures of this project. Their Order is part of the Franciscan family, established

Aujourd’hui, nous parlons du monastère et de la porterie de Ronchamp.Comme je le dis souvent, il est difficile de reconstituer de manière exacte le moment où commence un projet : on se perd parfois dans le temps, parce que l’offre arrive alors que l’on est engagés dans d’autres travaux, ou distraits par la livraison d’un autre bâtiment, ou trop accaparés par un chantier complexe. C’est pourquoi faire remonter de notre mémoire le début est souvent une opération compliquée. Je me souviens qu’en 2004 déjà, c’est-à-dire deux ans avant le mandat officiel, on avait parlé au bureau de l’idée de projeter une nouvelle porterie, c’est-à-dire un bâtiment d’accueil destiné aux visiteurs de la chapelle de Ronchamp à Belfort. Mais sa naissance officielle remonte certainement à 2006, lorsque Germain Viatte, que je connaissais déjà comme ex-directeur du musée d’art moderne du Centre Georges Pompidou, était venu nous voir à notre bureau à Paris. Germain est un important conservateur d’art, dont il est grand connaisseur, et un grand humaniste, toujours capable de poser un regard global sur les choses, d’en avoir une vision d’ensemble. Germain m’avait dit qu’en plus de notre porterie, l’association Œuvre Notre Dame du Haut, qui allait devenir notre client, pensait accueillir sur la colline un petit monastère pour les sœurs clarisses. C’est ainsi que je me retrouvais à travailler sur un édifice religieux pour la deuxième fois dans ma carrière. L’expérience précédente, avec le sanctuaire dédié à Padre Pio à San Giovanni Rotondo, s’était conclue en 2004. Celle-ci avait été très prenante et en quelque sorte douloureuse. Certes, dans ce cas également, il s’agissait d’un lieu de foi, de réflexion et de recueillement, mais c’était un sanctuaire énorme, destiné à accueillir des milliers de pèlerins. Par ailleurs, j’avais dû me confronter à une espèce de sécularisation qui avait conduit au phénomène quasi touristique de San Giovanni Rotondo. Quelques années plus tard, je me retrouvais, en revanche, face à l’idée de concevoir un petit monastère pour 12 sœurs, et cela m’avait donné la possibilité de raisonner, et donc de projeter de manière radicalement différente. Tout d’abord pour la comparaison avec les clarisses, qui a été l’une des aventures de ce projet.

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2011, Ronchamp, France.

The comparison with the masters: designing alongside Le Corbusier’s masterpiece. A small monastery for 12 Poor Clare nuns immersed in the silence and seclusion of the wood. A place that interprets their motto: “silence, joy and prayer”. Work starting from the minimum size: the nuns’ cells each measuring 2.70 m per side. Underground construction and exposed concrete.



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La torre sarebbe nata a Southwark, sopra la stazione di London Bridge, la più antica della città. Iniziammo a pensare ad una forma che sembrasse generata dal movimento dei binari a terra.

The tower would be built in Southwark, over London Bridge Station, the oldest in the city. We began to think of a shape that appeared as if it were generated by the movement of the tracks on the ground.

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The tower would be built in Southwark, over London Bridge Station, the oldest in the city. We began to think of a shape that appeared as if it were generated by the movement of the tracks on the ground.


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Main Core

Backpack core

Intermediates columns

Perimeter columns


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Oggi è il 10 ottobre 2012: parliamo di London Bridge Tower, lo ‘Shard’. Tutto è cominciato nel 2000 con una telefonata di Tony Fitzpatrick, un ingegnere strutturista di Arup oggi purtroppo scomparso. Ci avvisava che un importante imprenditore inglese, Irvine Sellar, voleva costruire un edificio a Londra, sopra la stazione di London Bridge. Si tratta della più antica stazione della città, aperta nel 1836 a Southwark, subito a sud-est del London Bridge. Per me già l’idea di lavorare su un brownfield, ovvero una zona urbana dismessa e destinata alla riqualificazione, era interessante. Si trattava di un tema molto sentito da Ken Livingstone, allora Sindaco di Londra, che aveva rilanciato il concetto di green belt: un invisibile confine verde intorno alla città che ne costituisce il limite di espansione. Così si impedisce che la città cresca in modo esplosivo e disomogeneo, erodendo le campagne circostanti e intaccando la zona verde. L’idea è invece che debba crescere per implosione, occupando le zone dismesse. Oggi in Inghilterra è fortemente incoraggiato lo sfruttamento di terreni già edificati in precedenza, e poiché l’Inghilterra è stata la patria della rivoluzione industriale, è piena di brownfields. Tra queste zone ovviamente spiccano gli edifici industriali e ferroviari in disuso. C’erano quindi i presupposti perché diventasse un lavoro interessante. Organizzammo un primo incontro a Berlino nel maggio del 2000, ricordo che eravamo in un ristorante di Marlene Dietrich Platz, nel centro di Potsdamer Platz. Un luogo che per me ha un significato professionale particolare: il mio studio ha lavorato al progetto di riqualificazione urbana di quell’area per otto anni, dal 1992 al 2000.Ho notato che talvolta i miei progetti si rincorrono l’un l’altro, è come se ci fosse una specie di staffetta in cui si passano il testimone. Queste fortunate coincidenze che collegano fra loro lavori anche diversissimi si sono verificate piuttosto spesso, forse è anche il semplice risultato di una lunga carriera.In quella occasione incontrai per la prima volta Irvine Sellar. Un vero self made man: ha iniziato la sua carriera negli anni Sessanta vendendo abiti, fino a diventare uno dei grandi protagonisti della Swinging London. Ha ideato e costruito il riferimento per tutti i mercati alternativi del mondo: Carnaby Street che con i suoi negozi di musica indipendente, i Beatles e stilisti come Mary Quant ha cambiato il volto dell’Inghilterra.Scoprii che Irvine Sellar aveva affittato nel 1998 il terreno da Network Rail (la società privata derivata dalla British Rail) ed aveva già in mano un progetto di massima. Non era però del tutto soddisfatto, perché trovava che mancasse una visione precisa, che non rappresentasse un’idea forte. Per questo volle incontrarmi, ed iniziammo a discuterne insieme.

The Shard The Shard

It’s October 10th 2012: I’m talking about London Bridge Tower, often referred to as the Shard. The project began in 2000 with a phone call from Tony Fitzpatrick, a structural engineer for Arup, who has since sadly passed away. He told us that a British entrepreneur, Irvine Sellar, wanted to construct a building in London above London Bridge railway station. The station, London’s oldest, was inaugurated in 1836 in Southwark, just south-east of London Bridge. For me, the idea of working on a brownfield site, (an abandoned urban area destined for redevelopment), was an intriguing one. Ken Livingstone, at that time Mayor of London, had taken the issue to heart. In fact Livingstone had been working to give new impetus to the existing concept of the green belt: a green ‘border’ around London that constitutes its outer limit and on which building is strictly limited. It serves to prevent the city from growing explosively and unevenly, eroding the surrounding countryside.Instead the idea was that London should grow inwards, making use of the city’s vacant sites. Today, construction in England is encouraged on land that has been previously developed, and since England was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, brownfield sites are not hard to come by. And naturally some of the most high profile of these areas include abandoned industrial and railway buildings. The job was already starting to sound interesting!Our initial meeting, in May 2000, was held at a restaurant in Berlin’s Marlene Dietrich Platz, at the centre of Potsdamer Platz. It was a place that held particular meaning for me as a professional, as my office had been working on the area’s urban redevelopment for eight years, from 1992 to 2000.I’ve noticed that my projects sometimes seem to follow on from one another, as if they were in a kind of relay in which the baton is passed from one to the next. Fortuitous coincidences that sometimes link projects seem to happen to me quite often. Perhaps it’s just the natural result of having a long career!It was at that time that I first met Irvine Sellar. A true self-made man, he began his career in the 1960s selling clothes, and went on to become one of the great protagonists of Swinging London. He conceived of and built the reference point for all the world’s alternative markets: Carnaby Street. With its independent music shops, the Beatles and designers like Mary Quant, it changed the face of England itself.I found out that Irvine Sellar had leased the site at London Bridge in 1998 from Network Rail (the private company derived from British Rail), and already had a rough draft for a project in hand. He wasn’t entirely satisfied however, because he felt that it lacked a clear vision and didn’t convey a strong

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2012, London, Great Britain.

The dream of building the tallest skyscraper in Europe in the heart of London. This gave birth to the Shard, a small vertical city 309 meters high. Urban recovery and collaboration with Ken Livingstone. The adventure of the Public Inquiry: planning with the city and its inhabitants. The theme of public transport: 48 parking spaces for 8,000 people. For the first time ever the top-down technique for building such a tall structure. Adventures on the construction site: the alpinists who worked on the façade.



Allora nacque lo schizzo che poi è diventato in qualche modo il simbolo di questo progetto: è una specie di diagramma in cui disegnai il tetto all’altezza, più o meno, di quello esistente, con curve a salire e a scendere.

At that point, I did the sketch which later became the project’s symbol. It’s diagrammatic and shows a sweepingly curved roof roughly as high as the previous one.

Una cosa che capii subito è che avrei tenuto la piazza. “The Piazza”, così poi battezzata in italiano, è il punto intorno al quale si raccordano tutti i padiglioni che compongono il museo. È l’elemento fondatore di tutto, il vuoto che conta più dei pieni.

One thing that was immediately obvious was that the plaza would have to stay. Named “the Piazza”, it is the hub around which the museum’s pavilions are deployed.The Piazza is the heart of the entire concept, a space that has more significance than any of the volumes.

Lia, oggi ti racconto della California Academy of Sciences a San Francisco. È un progetto recente, inaugurato a settembre del 2008 dopo nove anni di lavoro. Ogni volta, quando si inaugura un edificio, ripenso per un attimo a quanto tempo c’è voluto per realizzarlo. Nove anni non è male: quando va tutto bene ce ne vogliono cinque o sei, ma quando va male possono diventare anche venti, quindi direi che nove è un’ottima media.Come spesso accade, tutto cominciò con una telefonata. Era il settembre del 1999, e la telefonata mi sorprese, come sempre, mentre facevo qualcos’altro.Quasi tutti i miei progetti cominciano così, con un sospiro, che sarebbe la traduzione del “ci manca anche questa!” che penso ogni volta. Perché quando sto facendo qualcosa ne sono preso completamente. E in questa specie di “lunga infanzia” che è il mio mestiere mi trovo spesso a lavorare su un progetto, ad esserne completamente assorbito, e a reagire con diffidenza alle nuove proposte.Si trattava di una selezione tra più architetti, fra i quali avrebbero poi scelto a chi affidare il progetto.“Selezione” significa che, a differenza che nel caso di concorso, gli architetti chiamati a partecipare non devono presentare un progetto, ma sono valutati in base ai lavori già svolti e ad una serie di incontri preliminari.In questo caso, ad accompagnare il dossier con la proposta di partecipare alla selezione, arrivarono delle immagini terribili del museo com’era allora: un insieme di 12 diversi edifici, costruiti fra il 1916 e il 1991 all’interno del Golden Gate Park. Appariva come una serie di blocchi posizionati malamente, in gran parte distrutti o molto danneggiati dal terremoto del 1989, che poi fu la ragione che spinse le istituzioni ad occuparsi del museo. Il 17 ottobre 1989, San Francisco fu colpita da un terribile terremoto che prese il nome dal luogo dell’epicentro, Loma Prieta, una montagna a pochi chilometri da Santa Cruz. La maggior parte degli edifici che costituivano l’Academy era danneggiata, e la scena del Goden Gate Park, con al centro il museo, devo dire che appariva disperata. La proposta non era quella di rifare completamente il museo, ma era piuttosto una sfida a porsi il problema di cosa fare in una circostanza del genere, di come reagire. Insomma, il progetto cominciò così, con un certo distacco, e con la consapevolezza che in quel momento in studio c’era troppo da fare; stavamo già lavorando molto e non ci sarebbe stato il tempo per un altro progetto.Poi quello che cambiò tutto fu un fatto completamente estraneo al progetto.

La California Academy of Sciences

Lia, today I am going to tell you about the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It is a recent project, inaugurated in September 2008 after nine years’ work. Every time I inaugurate a building, I think for a minute about how long it took to complete.Nine years is not bad. It takes five or six when everything goes smoothly but that can rise to twenty. I’d say nine years is a good average.As so often happens, it started with a phone call. It came in September 1999 and as always, I was busy with something else. Almost all my projects start with a sigh of resignation, an outward manifestation of the “that’s all we need!” running through my mind. When I am busy doing something, I get completely wrapped up in it. In the extended childhood that is my craft, I am often working on a project I get so caught up in that I am very reluctant to entertain new proposals.This one was a selection process involving a number of architects, one of whom would then be entrusted with the project. A selection, as opposed to a competition, means that the architects invited do not have to present a project. Instead, they are evaluated on the basis of work they have already done, and on a series of preliminary meetings.In this case, the dossier with the invitation to take part in the selection was accompanied by a number of alarming photos of how the museum looked at the time. The twelve separate buildings, constructed in the Golden Gate Park between 1916 and 1991, looked like blocks put together randomly. Many had been badly damaged during the 1989 earthquake, which was in fact what had prompted the local authorities to turn their attention to the museum.On 17 October 1989, San Francisco was hit by a terrible tremor that was named after the site of its epicentre, Loma Prieta, a mountain a few kilometres from Santa Cruz.Most of the Academy buildings had been damaged and the Golden Gate Park, with the museum at its heart, was a depressing spectacle. It was not so much a proposal to rebuild the entire museum as a challenge. What should be the response in these circumstances?In any case, we went into the project with a certain air of detachment and the knowledge that we had too much to do in the studio just then. There was a lot of work; we were already working hard and we really couldn’t handle another project.But that soon changed thanks to an event that had nothing to do with the project.At the time, I was organising a trip with you. You will remember that we had been toying with the idea of a trip round the world and a visit to San Francisco slotted neatly in.

The California Academy of Sciences

2008, San Francisco, California.

A museum to celebrate the beauty and fragility of the Earth, through the natural sciences. The relationship with scientists and researchers. Constructing in the heart of the Golden Gate Park “a gentle machine” to explore the relation between building and nature. The construction of a green roof of over 18,000 square meters covered by a living carpet of plants that do not need irrigation. Collaboration with botanists. The first great institution that won LEED Platinum certification.

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1998, Nouméa, New Caledonia.

The discovery of a new world: the human and professional adventure of designing in the antipodes. Working between architecture and anthropology. A Cultural Centre to celebrate Kanak culture, its traditions, language and craftsmanship, made up of 10 different buildings with different functions. A true village. The exploitation of ventilation and the difficult research to express the tradition of the Pacific with modern language. The long research into materials.



1997, Basel, Switzerland.

Again a museum, this time surrounded by gree-nery, and again a great client: the collector Ernst Beyeler. The evolution of the theme of natural light from above. A lightweight glass roof selects and filters natural light, redistributing it in the exhibition spaces. Designing and verifying: the history of pro-totypes. A space made up of compressions and expansions, horizontal and inclined planes, calm and tension. A place of “luxe, calme et volupté” as Beyeler wanted his museum to be.



1987, Houston, Texas.

The project that marked the “return to architecture” after the Centre Pompidou. The extraordinary encounter with the client, Dominique de Menil, who wanted a building “big inside and small outside” in which to exhibit over 10,000 pieces of primitive and modern art. The rotation of the works and the “Treasure House”. The theme of natural light and the idea of the village museum. Experimentation as a fundamental tool of the creative process. A unifying thread, that of experimentation and natural light, that would accompany RPBW’s work in many future projects.



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