A Presentation On Architect Renzo Piano

1. Renzo Piano
A Presentation On

2. General Info:
• Italian Architect and Engineer
• Born in Genoa, Italy
• Date of Birth : 14th Sept, 1937
• Born in the family of builders
• Always saw himself as an Architect with a builder’s roots.
• Studied in Milan and Florence
• Graduated in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic University in 1964 AD
• Combined his first experimental work with his brother Ermanno who was a
engineer
• Worked with famous architects Louis Kahn in Philadelphia and Z.S. Makowsky until
1970
• In 1977, Piano's first masterpiece the Pompideau Centre opened in Paris and Piano
achieved international acclaim for his work.

3. Ideology and Quotes:
• Architecture is a very dangerous job. If a writer makes a bad book, people don't read it. But if
you make bad architecture, you impose ugliness on a place for a hundred years.
• Architects have to dream. We have to search for our Atlantises, to be explorers, adventurers,
and yet to build responsibly and well.
• A builder is like a little god - somebody who does things, doesn't just draw things.
• Architecture is an artistic craft, but at the same time it is also a scientific profession, it is
precisely its distinctiveness
• One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all over again.
• When you design a building, you start from a general philosophy, and you come down, and
you start from detail and come up. Only the theoretical architect believes that you can make
the concept and then sometime, somebody will come to build it.

4. Characteristics:
His architecture is defined as
solid construction made by
excellent materials .
Takes advantage of the topography to
the relationship between the internal
spaces and also to the outside.
Renzo Piano designed a
building capable of integrating
with nature, in tribute to one of
the most prolific and profound
artists of modern times.

5. Styles:
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.

6. Famous Works:
• 1976: 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

7. Centre Georges Pompidou
Location : Paris, France
Date : 1972-1976
Type : Modern Art Museum
Style : High tech Modern
• A Modern art museum constructed by high-tech steel and glass, built on 1976
• The largest modern art museum in Europe
• Music and acoustics study center
• High-tech architecture in which he strives to reveal the building’s inner workings and
technological marvels that typically remain hidden beneath its surface.

8. Design & 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.
To maximize internal space, they turned
the construction inside-out and exposed a
skeleton of brightly colored tubes for
mechanical systems. The ducts on the
outside of the building are color-coded:
blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for
electricity cables and red for movement
and flow (elevators, stairs) and safety (fire
extinguishers).

9. Inside Out:
The center Pompidou broke the
mold with its 'inside out‘
construction: the steel skeleton
from which the floors are
suspended dominantly visible
from the outside, together with
the giant external escalators, with
the color-coded service ducts
exposed on both the inside and
out.
Now that the fact of these
appearances is no longer
shocking, attention focus on how
they are done.

10. Structural Colour:
One of the distinctive features of the Centre
Pompidou is the striking presence of colour.
Four strong colours – blue, red, yellow and
green – clothe the structure and enliven the
façade, their use governed by a code laid
down by the architects:
• Blue for circulating air (air conditioning)
• Yellow for circulating electricity
• Green for circulating water
• Red for circulating people (escalators and
lifts).

11. The Shard
• Tallest building in Western Europe.
• 309.6 metres (1,016ft) high.
• 72 habitable floors.
• Design was influenced by the irregular nature of the site.
Location : London, UK
Completion : 2012 AD
Type : Vertical City

12. Design & Concept:
The design was influenced by the irregular nature
of the site. He designed the Shard as a spire-like
sculpture emerging from the River Thames. The
term "The Shard" came about due to the
semblance of the building to a shard of glass
stabbing out of the ground. Renzo Piano was
intent on creating a design that stood out against
the London skyline without attempting to be too
overbearing or indelicate. It was designed to use
specialized windows with a specific glazing that
reflects light in a distinctive way. The glaze would
reflect different intensities of light in ways that
would change the appearance of the building
during different seasons or times of day. The
Shard was one of the first buildings to incorporate
the new structural standards recommended by
the US National Institute of Standards and
Technology after 9/11.
Hand Drawing by Piano of the Shard

13. • The building reached its top height on 19 June.
• It has 11,000 glass panels.
• The area of the glass façade is 56,000 sq metres
(602,779 sq ft)
• There are 44 lifts, including double-decker lifts.
• There are 306 flights of stairs.
• The total floor space is 11 hectares (27 acres).
• 95% of the construction materials are recycled.
• 20% of the steelwork is from recycled sources.
• Each facet forms a shard, a plane of glass gently
inclined inwards, rising towards the top.
• The corners of the development are open and the
shards do not touch, allowing the building to
"breathe".
• A further 15 levels will make up the "spire". Six
have the potential to be used, while another nine
are exposed to the elements.
Details:

14. Details:
Section showing
the structure with
the use of material.
Section showing
the structure with
vertical load and
functionality.

15. Details:
The top facade; the
glass panels don’t
meet at the top
giving it the look of
the shard
Section showing floor
details

16. Other Iconic Works
Living
Roof
Tjibaou
Cultural
Centre
Paul
Klee
Centre
Pathe
Foundat
ion

17. Honours:
• 1989, Royal Gold Medal
• 1990, Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della
Repubblica Italiana
• 1990, Kyoto Prize
• Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art, 28 March
1994
• 1995, Erasmus Prize
• 1995, Praemium Imperiale
• 1998, Pritzker Architecture Prize
• 2002, International Union of Architects#UIA Gold
Medal.
• 2004, Honorary doctorate from Columbia University,
New York
• 2006, Gold Medal for Italian Architecture, Milano
• 2008, AIA Gold Medal
• 2008, Sonning Prize
• 2013, elected into the National Academy of
Design in New York City
• 2017, Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso
X, the Wise
Pritzker Architecture Medal;
regarded as the Nobel Prize
for Architecture

18. Conclusion:
Renzo Piano was an Architect with a builder’s background. His design followed
modernism and post modernism the most. He was also regarded as Human-Techie
because of his high-tech designs and adaptations. His designs were innovative and
unique. He played in harmony with nature in his designs. Still at the age of 80, he has
influenced a lot of others to follow his footsteps and continue like him.

19. Architecture is not
just creating
buildings, it is a
task of serving
HUMANITY
-Renzo Piano
Thank You
Presented By:
Santosh Kumar Sah- 072/B.Arch/41
Shishir Raj Baral- 072/B.Arch/43
Department of Architecture
Purwanchal Engineering Campus