Italians in Architecture
Renzo Piano
Piano is the twenty-first architect in the world and the second Italian to become a
Laureate. The first being the late Aldo Rossi who was honored in 1990. Renzo Piano was
born into a family of builders in Genoa on September 14, 1937. His grandfather, his
father, four uncles and a brother were all contractors, and he admits, he should have been
one too, but instead chose architecture. Yet he declares that his architecture reflects an
influence from growing up in a family of builders.
His idol is Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446), the sculptor and architect of that great marvel, the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Piano says that Brunelleschi "studied the mechanism of the clock so that he could apply it to a system of great counterweights which in turn was used to raise the beams for the dome of the Florence cathedral."
He studied architecture at the University of Florence and Milan Polytechnic, graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1964. During his studies he was working under the guidance of Franco Albini, and also spent time on the construction sites of his father, a builder. Between the years 1965 and 1970 he set up Studio Piano, and with the support of his father, he experimented with lightweight structures, collaborating at various periods with Marco Zanuso in Milan. During this period he met Jean Prouvé, a friendship which was to have a profound influence on his work. In 1981 he formed the Renzo Piano Building Workshop with offices in Paris and on the coast west of Genoa, between Voltri and Vesima. Perched on the rocks and surrounded by the sea, it is half rock, half ship, and in fact, the place is called Punta Nave: Ship Rock. "Here I find calm," says Piano, "silence and concentration - all things that are essential to my personal way." Now he also has offices in Osaka, Japan, and in Berlin.
Renzo Piano is a man whose work is reinventing architecture in projects scattered around the world - from a Mixed Use Tower in Sydney, Australia to the mile-long Kansai Air Terminal on a man-made island in Osaka Bay, Japan to the master plan for the reconstruction of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin or the Beyeler Foundation Musuem in Basel, Switzerland.
Even this skip around the globe does not indicate the full range or enormous output of this prodigious architect. Renzo Piano's projects include not only buildings that range from homes to apartments, offices to shopping centers, museums, factories, workshops and studios, airline and railway terminals, expositions, theaters and churches; but also bridges, ships, boats, and cars, as well as city planning projects, major renovations and reconstructions. He is even a television star of a program on architecture.
His first important commission was in 1969 to design the Italian Industry Pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. In 1971 with Richard Rogers, who although born in Florence was English, they entered and won the international competition for the Georges Pompidou Center (also known as Beaubourg) in Paris. Other projects followed. The Menil Collection museum in Houston, Texas; the 60,000 seat football stadium built for the 1990 World Cup in Bari, Italy; and the multi-functional complex of the giant Fiat factory at Lingotto near Turin, Italy.
When Constantin Brancusi died and left all his work to the French state, Piano was given the task of rebuilding Atelier Brancusi on the square of Centre Pompidou. IBM called upon Piano to provide them with a Traveling Pavilion to visit 20 European cities to convey the marvels of new technology. The Piano solution was made up of 34 arches, each consisting of six pyramidal elements of polycarbonate. When assembled, it was 48 meters (154 feet) long and six meters (20 feet) high
To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, Genoa organized the Columbus International Exposition which Piano took on as a project. "This was a great opportunity," says Piano, "to rescue the historic city from decay."
After many pleadings from Padre Gerardo, he consented to build a church in San Giovanni Rotondo. It is Piano's concept that the Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church will "spring out of the stone of the mountainside. Walls, parvis, supporting arches, and covering roof will all be made of a local stone. The main span of over 50 meters (over 150 feet) will perhaps be the longest supporting arch ever built out of stone." A gently sloping courtyard will be capable of holding up to 30,000 people; another 6,000 could go inside the church.
In addition to the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Piano has won many too numerous to mention. Among them are the Compasso d'Oro Award, Milan, Italy (1981), Legion d'Honneur Paris, France (1985), Cavaliere di Gran Croce from the Italian Government (1989), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Honorary Fellowship (1994), Premio Michelangelo in Rome, Italy (1994), Art Prize of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany (1995), and the Praemium Imperiale, Tokyo, Japan (1995).
The works of Renzo Piano are so extensive that it would take many books (and has) to adequately describe the various projects. But mention must be made of some other major works still in progress: a new Mercedes Benz Design Center, in Stuttgart, Germany; a new Auditorium for Rome which consists of three separate concert halls with capacities of 2700, 1200 and 500 seats; a mixed use tower for offices and residences in Sydney, Australia; and a new master plan for the renovation and expansion of Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Aldo Rossi (1931-1997)
Aldo Rossi was born in Milan in 1931 where his father was engaged in the
manufacture of bicycles, bearing the family name, a business he says was founded by his
grandfather. While growing up during the years of World War II, Rossi studied at the
School of the Somaschi Fathers in Lake Como, and later at the Collegio Alessandro Volta in
Lecco. Shortly after the war ended, he entered the Milan Polytechnic receiving his
architecture degree in 1959.
In 1956 he began his career working with Ignazio Gardella, and later with Marco Zanuso.
From 1955 to 1964 he was editor-in-chief of "Casabella-Continuità". He has
taught at the Zilrich Federal Polytechnic and since 1976 has collaborated with leading
American universities such as Cornell and Yale. He is professor of architectural
composition at Venice University.
Although early film aspirations were gradually transposed to architecture, he still
retains strong interest in drama. Beginning in 1983 he directed the architectural section
of the Venice Biennale. In fact, he says, "In all of my architecture, I have always
been fascinated by the theatre." For the Venice Biennale in 1979, he designed the
Teatro del Mondo, a floating theatre, built under a joint commission from the theatre and
architecture commissions of the Biennale. Rossi described the project in its site, as
"a place where architecture ended and the world of the imagination began." In
Canada, the first Rossi project in the Western Hemisphere was completed in 1987 when the
Toronto Lighthouse Theatre was built on the banks of Lake Ontario.
His other projects and designs include: apartment complexes in Milan's
Gallaratese 2 district (1969-73); the Modena cemetery, together with G. Braghieri (1976);
a housing project in Berlin along the Verbindungskanal (1976); a "teatrino
scientifico" together with G. Braghieri and R. Freno (1978), the World Theatre,
Venice (1979); a design for West Cannareggio, together with G. Dubbini, A. De Poli and M.
Narpozzi (1980); a design for the Carlo Felice Theatre, Genoa (1982), a design for a Tower
on Lake Orta (1986).
In his Autobiografia Scientifica, Aldo Rossi stated that: "It is impossible
to think without having an obsession; it is impossible to create anything imaginative
unless the foundation is rigorous indisputable and repetitive". His poetical
"obsession" is with absence, the coherent and obstinate language of abstraction
and reduction expressed in all his architectural creations, from the apartment complexes
in Milan's Gallaratese district to the Modena cemetery, from the World Theatre in Venice
to the building in Rauchstrasse, Berlin, to quote but a few of the most well known.
The elemental roofing the geometric simplification, the rhythmic distribution of
apertures, the assemblage of fragments and primary forms, the love of articulated space
that shapes and often determines the entire structure of the design: these are the
co-ordinates and formal devices of Rossi's poetical expression. They are also
characteristic of the objects he designs for industry. These objects appeal to us at first
sight; the La conica espresso coffee maker and II conico kettle by
Alessi, or the famous cabin wardrobe so evocative of seaside memories are real domestic
microarchitectures. metaphors of Great Architecture.
The naif appeal of Rossi’s designs perhaps stems first from
their existence in a kind of poetic
suspension, then from the complex of symbolic suggestions they evoke. In this connection, two projects are emblematic: one for
the World Theatre in Venice, the other for a "Tower of
memories" (competition for a landmark in Melbourne). The
former, a travelling scenic machine,
is a tribute to one of the themes dear to the theatrical tradition
of sixteenth-century Venice. Destined to float for a few months
in the waters of the Lagoon, it is an
ephemeral apparition, whose very transience has become its
"raison d'etre". The latter, a Tower built over the railways in
an unknown town had only a symbolic function, symbolic par
excellence.
When Rossi was introduced at Harvard to deliver the Walter Gropius Lecture, the chairman
of the architecture department, Jose Rafael Moneo said, "When future historians look
for an explanation as to why the destructive tendencies that threatened our cities
changed, Rossi's name will appear one of those who helped to establish a wiser and more
respectful attitude."
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