Ar.

RENZO PIANO
A HIGH TECH ARCHITECT

-MAHIMA
Ar. RENZO PIANO
* Born – sept 14, 1937 in Italy
* He was born in a wealthy family of construction
companies
* He completed his degree at the Architectural
association school in London.
* Graduation in 1904 from Milan Polytechnic
Architecture School
* Awards - Pritzker architecture prize
RIBA Gold medal
sonning prize
AIA Gold medal
Kyoto Prize
* Worked with Louis I khan in Philadelphia and Z.S
Makowsky in London
* He established an architectural firm with Richard
Rogers.

Renzo piano is often called a “ High tech “

architect because his designs showcase
technological shapes and materials.
 FAMOUS WORKS

1977: Centre Pompidou, Paris (with Richard Rogers)

1990: San Nicola Stadium, Bari, Italy
1990: IRCAM Extension, Institute for Acoustic Research, Paris
1991: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Genoa, Italy
1992: Columbus International Exposition, Genoa, Italy
1994: Lingotto Factory Conversion, Turin, Italy
1994: Kansai Airport Terminal, Osaka, Japan
1995: Menil Collection Museum, Houston, Texas
1996: Congress Center and Offices, Lyon, France
1997: Reconstruction of the Atelier Brancusi, Paris
1998: Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Nouméa, New Caledonia
2007: New York Times Building 2008: California Academy of Sciences
2012: The Shard, London, United Kingdom MOST FAMOUS WORK…..
 PHILOSOPHY

Take advantage of the He designed a building

His architecture is
topography to the capable of integrating
defined as solid
relationship between the with nature, in tribute to
construction made by
internal spaces and to one of the most profound
excellent materials . the outside. artists of modern times.

IDEOLOGIES AND QUOTES

• "Architecture is an artistic craft, but at the same time it is also a scientific profession, it is
precisely its distinctiveness"
• "When style gets to become a brand, a personal seal, this becomes a cage"
• "The architect is first and foremost a builder, but also should be a poet, and above all a
humanist
The different project shows how Renzo play with different shapes. He clearly
implements that there are 360 degrees, then why just stick to only one.
THE CENTRE POMPIDOU
• Location - PARIS ,FRANCE
• Type - Culture and leisure
• Architectural style -
Postmodern / high-tech
• Construction time – 7 years (1971–
1977 )
• Architect - Renzo Piano, Richard
Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini
• Structural & Services engineer - Arup

DESIGN AND CONCEPT

In 1970 an international architectural

competition was launched based on a
program to build a cultural and arts
complex in the center of historic Paris
set out by French President Georges
Pompidou.
 The centre is named after Georges Pompidou,
the president of France.

Aerial view

The flat open site upon

which it is located is a
constant exterior stage for
urban events
Front view
Themes of design
• Flexible envelope
• Simple geometric form
• Open piazza
• Occupancy zoned ( connection with Paris)
• Steel structure
• Mechanical exterior
• Building circulation.

The centre houses

• A vast public library
• Art museum (largest in Europe)
• IRCAM, a centre for music and
acoustic research
INSIDE OUT Steel skeleton from which the
floors are suspended dominantly
The centre Pompidou visible from outside, with the giant
broke the mould with its external escalators & the colour
inside out construction coded service ducts exposed on
both the inside and out.
 Structural system - Steel
superstructure with reinforced
concrete floors
Floor area – 65,000 sqm

45 m
Cost – 363,858,691 $ (11.7% over
budget)

THE BUILDING IN FIGURES

•12 210 m2 for art museum
•5 900 m2 for temporary exhibitions
•2 cinemas (315 and 144 seats)
•A performance space (384 seats) and
a lecture theatre (158 seats)
•An associated 10,400 m2 public
reading library accommodating 2 200
users
•The Museum’s own 2 600 m2 research
library
ZONING
7 levels

National modern art museum

Circulation areas
Centre of creation industry
Public library and information
centres
IRCAM, a centre for music and
Level 0 – Forum
acoustic research
1. Forum
2. General information
3. Sales pass
4. Reception groups – educative tellers
5. Children’s gallery
6. Box office
7. Wardrobe
8. Café
9. Library – book centre
Level 1 Level 4 – Music
1. Forum 1. Contemporary art collections from 1960’s till today
2. Hall of rest 2. New media space
3. Taquilla box office 3. Museum
4. Cine – theatre 4. Museum gallery
5. Small room 5. Angtigraphic gallery
6. Big room 6. Audio guide
7. Library

Level 2 – Library Level 5 – Music

1. General fund 1. Modern art collections from
2. Self education space 1905 – 1960
3. World of Television 2. Terrace Sculptures - Calder
4. Press room 3. Terrace Sculptures - Richier
5. Cafeteria for library 4. Terrace Sculptures - Laurens

Level 3 – library Level 6

1. Audio visual space 1. Gallery 1
2. General fund 2. Gallery 2
3. Main library 3. Gallery 3
4. Reserved cabin 4. Restaurant
5. Library
 PLAN ELEVATION

SECTION SECTIONAL ELEVATION

 A tube that zigzags up to
the top of the building
providing visitors with an
astonishing view of the city
of Paris.

Interior of the building The steel skeleton of the

floors are dominantly
visible from the outside.
Use of escalators is not
only the aesthetic
advantage but it also
highlights the post modern
era

Tubular escalator on the

front façade of the
building
The ducts on the outside
of the building are color-
coded:

Blue for air

Green for fluids,
Yellow for electricity cables
Red for movement and flow
(elevators, stairs) and safety
To maximize internal space,
(fire extinguishers).
they turned the construction
Grey for stairs and elevators
inside-out and exposed a
White for largest ventilation
skeleton of brightly colored
components
tubes for mechanical systems.
Use of steel (15 000 tons) and glass (11
000 m²) and the externalization of its
load-bearing structure together with
circulation and services

Steel is the permanent element of the The structure : cast steel

structure columns exterior steel
Industrial looking exoskeleton which bracing the gerberette
carry 3000 tons of vertical force (cantilevered arms that
The column create 13 visual bays connect the steel
which support the mechanical system columns) concrete floor
panels
MENIL MUSEUM
The Menil Collection opened in 1986
in Houston, TX.
Dominique de Menil, heiress to the
Schlumberger oil company fortune,
and her husband, John de Menil,
became a power couple in
the Houston art scene beginning in
the 1970s.
 INTRODUCTION
• In 1972 the de Menils engaged noted architect
Louis Kahn, who had recently completed the
Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, to design a museum
to house their collection.
• The building site was a 1920s residential enclave,
entire blocks of which they had purchased over
the course of several years with the aim of
creating a storage facility and study center for
their art.
• Kahn called for removing all of the residential
structures and transforming the entire site into a
The Menil Collection, located in Houston, museum complex with gardens.
Texas, USA, refers to a museum that • Due to John de Menil’s death in 1973, followed
houses the private art collection of by Kahn’s less than a year later, the architect’s
founders John de Menil and Dominique ambitious plan never came to fruition.
de Menil. • Dominique de Menil continued to pursue the
• The Renzo Piano-designed museum idea of permanently housing the family collection
opened to the public in June 1987, has in a public museum. Preliminary schemes were
collection of twentieth-century art, developed with architect Howard Barnstone. Then
including over 15,000 paintings, sculptures, in 1980 she met the Italian architect Renzo Piano
prints, drawings, photograph , and rare who she collaborated with excellently.
books.
Plan

Section
DESIGN
• Unlike the Kahn plan, the building envisioned by Piano—
his first in the United States—would not remake the existing
neighborhood but rather blend in and harmonize with it.
• The exterior—an understated facade of gray cypress
siding, wide expanses of glass, and white-painted steel—
echoes the surrounding bungalows, all of them painted
the same shade of what has become known as “Menil
gray.”
• The building’s dark-stained pine floors, low-slung profile,
large lawn, and surrounding portico (which mimics the
deep porches typical of early Houston homes) further
recall the neighboring domestic structures.
• Telling Piano what she wanted in very simple but specific
terms—a museum that would look “small on the outside,
but be as big as possible inside”—de Menil got exactly
what she wanted; although the Menil is large, it sits gently
in its residential setting, and its careful proportions and
placement engage easily with the nearby houses.
• De Menil insisted that most of her collection be displayed in natural light so that visitors could
experience art as she did in her home, enlivened by the subtle changes that occur at different times of
the day or year.
• It was also critical that the works be protected from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays.
• Piano, with engineering consultants from Ove Arup and Partners, made several trips to Houston to
measure light intensity and atmospheric conditions.
STRUCTURE
• While technology provided the necessary data, it
was a trip to Israel’s Kibbutz Ein Harod with de Menil
that provided Piano with his first inspiration.
• The kibbutz’s architect, Samuel Bickets, had
suspended a screen beneath the museum building’s
skylights that filtered sunlight, which could fill the
gallery without directly striking works of art.
• The second inspiration was Piano’s own sailboat, a
model of which the architect had recently built using
Ferro-cement.
• Enchanted by the flexibility of this particular material,
Piano designed a wave-shaped “leaf” for the Menil’s
roof and ceiling, which he used along with white steel
trusses, both in the gallery spaces and on the building’s
exterior, to unify the structure.
• The leaves function as a method of controlling light
levels and also as a means of returning air flow.
“ THANK YOU

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