Who Is RENZO PIANO? (ft Centro Botin, Georges Pompidou Centre and the Shard)

Renzo Piano is a world renowned architect and designer of buildings from the Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre on the Tinu Peninsula, to the Shard in London. Renzo Piano is also the architect of Centro Botin in Santander.

Renzo Piano was an architecture student at the Milan Polytechnic University, graduating in 1964, then teaching at the very same place until 1968. At the same time he was working in 2 large international firms for the famous architect Louis Kahn, and engineer Zygmunt Stanislaw Makowski.

In 1971 Piano Piano competed with major architectural firms and won the commission for one of the most prestigious projects in Paris, the Centre Georges Pompidou - the French national museum of 20th century art. This was a massive shock to the architectural world due to the little experience with museums and other major structures Renzo Piano had. However those with the power to choose who won the contract were particularly interested in his work with the highlighted conduits from the B&B Italia. When the building was completed and shown to the public the view of architecture in the everyday household dramatically changed as no other well-known buildings highlighted essential services as was done in this museum. The Escalator crossed the facade of the building at a diagonal in a transparent tube. This kind of design made Piano world famous almost overnight, the media naming the building style as high tech. Renzo Piano later argued however that this style of design is instead a challenge to academism, as well as being a complete parody of the imagery of technology of that time. Piano further argues that considering it high tech is actually a mistake.

Renzo Piano's fascination with technology is evident in all his designs, although later in his career he takes more consideration of the building's context. For example, the Menil Collection museum, built in 1987, has a low, flat scale, in order to be in keeping with the surrounding buildings. Renzo Piano described its as serene, calm and discrete

In the 1980s Renzo Piano and his architectural firm took on a variety of projects and used the most up-to-date advanced technology at the time however again contrasting with his earlier design of the Pompidou centre it used it as discreetly as possible.

In 1982 a Fat Lingotto factory closed down. 3 years later the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, his architectural firm, was commissioned to convert the building into a multi-purpose centre while maintaining it's architectural identity. For this reason the piano decided to alter little on the building's exterior.

In 1998 a joint project between New Caledonia and the French government hired piano to design the Jean Marie Tijbaou cultural centre in order to display the culture of the Kanak people, the indigenous people of New Caledonia. This is after the leader of the independence movement was assassinated in 1989, and who had a vision of establishing a cultural centre which blended the linguistic and artistic heritage of the Kanak people. The building consists of a mixture of traditional and modern materials such as local wood along with glass and aluminium.

The Botin Centre, a gallery for art, culture and education, opened in 2017 in Santander with a total cost of 77 million euro. The building is half based on land with the other half suspended over the water on stilts. This avoids obstructing the view of the sea and the beautiful bay landscape. Stairways and elevators lead up to the two blocks which are separated by small steel and glass walkways. The exterior of the building is covered in over 270000 metallic discs which reflect the colours of the surrounding sea and sky. About the art centre, architect Renzo Piano said “From the very beginning, I wanted the building to fly”. The levitation trick was used to counteract the local residents' response that it would block the view of the sea.

The Shard is a 306m tower, making it the tallest building in the UK, located in London that opened in 2013. It contains over 70 floors including 25 floors used for office space, 3 for restaurants, 17 for hotels, 13 for apartments and 3 as a public viewing gallery, the rest mainly being used for mixed use. Piano said that he was inspired by the railway lines next to the site, the nearby London church spires, as well as masts of sailing ships. Like many of Pianos designs, The Shard was designed with energy efficiency in mind.

Timestamps:

00:00 Who is Renzo Piano?
00:31 Early Education
00:50 Early Architecture Projects
01:56 Georges Pompidou Centre
03:03 Menil Collection Museum
03:57 Renzo Piano in the 1908's
04:35 Fiat Lingotto Factory
05:16 Jean-Marie Tijbaou Cultural Centre
06:01 Centro Botin
06:50 The Shard

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