Famouse Architects
Introduce famouse architects
Tadao Ando
Jun 28th
Tadao Ando was born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan. Growing up in that city as Japan recovered prom the war, Tadao Ando spent the most of time out of doors, and was raised by his grandmother, whose name was "ando". From the age of 10 to 17 Tadao Ando worked at local carpenter, where Tadao Ando learned how to work with wood and built a number of models of airplanes and ships. His studying was very unusual. "I was never a good student. I always prefered learning things on my own outside of class. When I was about 18, I started to wisit temples, shrines and tea houses in Kyoto and nara; There’s a lot of great traditional architecture in the area. I was studying architecture by going to see actual building, and reading books about them." His first interest in architecture was nourished in tadao’s 15 by buying a book of Le Corbusier sketches. "I traced the drawings of his early period so many times, that all pages turned black," says Tadao Ando: "in my mind I quite often wonder how Le Corbusier would have thought about this project or that."
Tadao Ando took a number of visits to the United States, Europe and Africa in the period between 1962 and 1969. It was certainly at that time that Tadao Ando began to form his own ideas about architectural design, before founding Tadao Ando Architectural & Associates in Osaka in 1969. Tadao Ando ‘s winner of many prestigous architectural awards, for example Carlsberg Prize (1992), Pritzker Prize (1995), Praemium Imperiale (1996), Gold Medal of Royal Institute of British Architects (1997) and now is one of the most highly respected architect in the world, influencing an entire generation of students.
The first impression of his architecture is its materiality. His large and powerfull walls set a limit. A second impression of his work is the tactility. His hard walls seem soft to touch, admit light, wind and stillness. Third impression is the emptiness, because only light space surround the visitor in Tadao Ando ‘s building.
Other things that had influenced his work and vocabulary of architecture is the pantheon in Rome and "enso", which is mysterious circle drawn by zen-budhists and symbolizing emptiness, loneliness, oneness and the moment of englightment. The circle and other rigorous geometrical forms are the basic forms of Tadao Ando ‘s art presentation.
First Tadao Ando ‘s realisation was Row House in Sumiyoshi, Osaka in 1975. This mentioned building was a simple block building, inserted into a narrow street of row houses. This residence is immediately noticeable because of its blank concrete fasade punctuated only by doorway. The whole object space is divided into a three equal rectangular spaces, while the central part is atrium. The space nearest the doorway contains the living room at ground level, and the bedroom above. The last final space contains the kitchen and bathtroom below, and the master bedroom above. Build in the wooden residential area above the port city of Kobe.
The Koshino House, second realisation of Tadao Ando, was completed in two phrases (1980-81 and 1983-84). This house is a masterpiece, and collects all fragments of Tadao Ando ‘s architectonical vocabulary, mainly the light. "Such things as light and wind only have meaning when they are introduced inside a house in a form cut off from the outside world. The forms I have created have altered and acquiered meaning through elementary nature (light and air) that give indications of the passage of time and changing of the seasons"
All Tadao Ando ‘s work is characteristically simple, and we can find similar forms in the first half of 20th century: "I am interested in a dialogue with the architecture of the past", Tadao Ando says, "but it must be filtered through my own vision and my own experience. I am indebted to Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but the same way, I take what they did and interpret it in my own fashion."
One of the first projects to bring international attention to Tadao Ando was his Rokko Housing I. (Kobe, Hyogo, 1981-83), which is situated much further down the slope of the Rokko Moutains than the Koshino house, this complex is wedged into a restricted site on a south-facing 60 degrees slope. Each of the 20 units is 5,4 x 4,8 m in size, and each has a terrace looking out towards the bush harbour of Kobe. Why was this monumental resident building so successful ? " I think architecture becomes interesting when it has a double character, that is, when it is as simple as possible but, at the same time as complex as possible"
Some years later, Tadao Ando build a second housing complex, adjacent to Rokko Housing I. (Rokko Housing II.). Four times larger than the original building, this structure includes 50 dwellings, designed on a 5,2m square grid. A third and even larger structure is now under way above Rokko Housing II. (Rokko Housing III.), under construction.
Tadao Ando ‘s most remarkable works are certainly the religious buildings. "I feel that the goal of most religious is similar, to make men happier and more at ease with themselves. I see no contradiction in my designing christian churches. " Tadao Ando has build a number of christian chapels and other places of religion and contemplation. One of the most amazing church is also one of his simplest. The church of the light (Baraki, Osaka, 1988-89) is located in a residential suburb 40 km to the north-east of the center of Osaka. It consists from a rectangular concrete box crossed at 15 degrees angle by freestanding wall. The bisecting wall obliges the visitor to turn to enter the chapel. As ever with Tadao Ando, entering a building requires an act of will and an awareness of the architecture. In an unusual configuration, the floor descends in stages toward the altar, which is next to the rear wall, whose horizontal and vertical openings form a cross, flooding the space with light.
Awaji is the largest island of the inland sea, set 600km to the south-west of Tokyo opposite Kobe in the bay of Osaka. Here, on hill above a small port, Tadao Ando build his Water Temple. Following a small footpath, the visitor first sees a long concrete wall, 3m high, with a single opening. Through this door one does not find an entrance, but rather another wall, blank, but carved this time, bordered by a white gravel path. Having walked past this new screen of concrete, the visitor discovers an oval lotus pond, 40m long and 30m wide. In the centre of the pond, a stair way descends to the real entrance of the temple. Below the Lotus Fond, within a circle 18M in diameter, the architect has inscribed a 17.4 m square. Here, within a grid of red wood, a statue of buddha turns its back to the west, where the only openings admits the glow of the setting sun. In this place at sunset the words of Tadao Ando can be more clearly understood: "architecture," Tadao Ando says, "has forgotten that space can be a source of inspiration." The other religious buildings are: Water Temple in Hyiogo, Meditation space UNESCO in Paris, etc.
The Children’s museum (1988-1989) is located on a large wooded hillside site overlooking a lake near the city of Himeji. In this mature work of Tadao Ando, the visitor is invited to discover the architecture in relation to its natural setting. The main unit of the museum contains a library, indoor and outdoor theatres, an exhibition gallery, a multipurpose hall and a restaurant. The outdoor theater is located on the rooftop, with a spectacular view of the lake. A stepped waterfall and pool near the building also serve to make a connection between the museum and the scenery of the lake. A path, marked by a long concrete wall leads the visitor away from the main structure toward a workshop complex consisting of a two-story square building.
Along this path Tadao Ando has placed a surprising group of 16 concrete columns in a square grid. In their wooded setting, these 9m high pillars recall that the first columns in architectural history were inspired by trees. Just down the road from the children’s museum Tadao Ando designed the Children’s Seminar House (1991-92). A residence for schoolchildren on vacation, which is capped by a small observatory. The other museums are: The Museum of Literature, Naoshima Contemporary Art museum, Chikatsu-Asuka Historical museum, etc.
There are many islands in the many islands in the inland sea of japan that are architectonicaly designed into a small cities. There are projects like naoshima museum and hotel (1990 – 92 and 1994 – 95), located at the southern end of island naoshima, and the great project for Awaji island, Hyogo. It was designed in 1992 and from year 1997 is under construction. This north – eastern shore of Awajishima. Tadao Ando describes it: "The program is for multi-use facility including a botanic garden, a place for the study of horticulture, an open-air theater, a convention hall, a hotel and a guest house. Our first idea was to restore the greenery, more specifically to hold a flower exposition there and to develop the idea into a permanent garden. We called this the millenium garden, and the project was developed on the basis of that concept. It was decided that the facilities would be linked by living things, that is, plants such as trees and flowers, and the flow of water and people. The alhamera in granada provides a historical model.
Tadao Ando is the world ‘s greatest living architect. If Tadao Ando has one weakness it may by a difficulty in translating the grandeur of his smaller buildings to a larger scale
other books about Tadao Ando
GA Houses 60 – Tadao Ando Tips on House Design
The Chichu Art Museum: Tadao Ando Builds For Claude Monet, Walter De Maria And James Turrell
Seven Interviews With Tadao Ando
El Croquis 44/58: Tadao Ando
The Colours of Light: Tadao Ando Architecture
Tadao Ando: Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum
Tadao Ando: Buildings, projects, writings
Global Architecture Document Extra: Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando: Architecture and Spirit (Monographs on Architecture, Architect’s Typologies Series)
Tadao Ando, Le Opere, Gli Scritti, LA Critica (Documenti di architettura)
Robert Venturi
Jun 28th
Robert Venturi, John Rauch and Scott Brown (VRSB) is a Philadelphia firm that has had a significant influence on late 20th-century architecture. The firm was founded in 1964 as Robert Venturi and John Rauch by partners Robert Venturi and John Rauch. They were joined in 1967 by Denise Scott Brown who since 1960 had been collaborating with Robert Venturi in teaching and the development of theory. In 1980, the firm became Robert Venturi, John Rauch and Scott Brown.
The firm’s influence was first felt through the writings of Robert Venturi and Scott Brown, beginning with Venturis Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture widely regarded as the seminal document of the postmodern movement. Published in 1966, it is still in print and has been translated and published in nine languages.
In Complexity and Contradiction, Robert Venturi issued his "gentle manifesto" against what he termed "the puritanically moral language" of late modernism. Robert Venturi asserted that the modernists had, in their revolutionary zeal, simplified and clarified architecture to the point of separating it "from the experience of life and the needs of society" While this simplification resulted in some beautiful buildings, the major result in the later years of modernism was a pervasive blandness or, as Robert Venturi put it in his rewording of Mies van der Rohe’s famous dictum, "Less is a bore".
Perhaps the most influential aspect of the book was its exuberant embrace of historical example as a source for contemporary inspiration. Modernism had eschewed historical reference, asserting that the past was irrelevant to modern architectural concerns. Robert Venturi, however, found rich lessons in the full range of the world’s architecture, and illustrated Robert Venturi’s theories using examples from many periods and styles. This acknowledgment of the continuity of architectural experience helped bring about the rapprochement with the past that has been a major characteristic of architecture in the 1980s.
In 1972, Robert Venturi, Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour published Learning from Las Vegas, in which they took the controversial approach of studying a form of building generally held in contempt, the commercial architecture of the highway "strip," as epitomized by Las Vegas. They believed that such vernacular architecture often demonstrated creative solutions to difficult problems and that "high-design" architects could learn important lessons from them.
Specifically, the book analyzed the use of symbolism on the strip as a basis for understanding symbolism as a significant element of architecture. On the strip, the largescale, attention-grabbing signs became the most important design elements, adorning buildings that were little more than utilitarian sheds. The authors contrasted this "decorated shed" with the "heroic and original "structures of late modernism, which, to compensate for their ideology-imposed lack of ornament, were distorted in program and structure to become ornaments themselves. The authors concluded that the decorated shed, as a legitimate and relatively inexpensive response to modern conditions, had more relevance to the present world than the costly contortions of the modernist monuments.
Architecture for the last quarter of our century should be socially less coercive and aesthetically more vital than the striving and bombastic buildings of our recent past. We architects can learn this from Rome and Las Vegas and from looking around us wherever we happen to be.
Both Complexity and Contradiction and Learning from Las Vegas caused considerable controversy because of thoir challenge to the status quo, but they were embraced by a rising generation of architects who shared the dissatisfaction with the restrictions of orthodox modernism and were searching for valid alternatives. The books have remained in print and are still widely read in the United States and abroad. Robert Venturi and Scott Brown have continued to develop and evaluate their theories in essays and addresses, and a number of these were collected in 1984 in A View from the Campidoglio.
As important as these theoretical investigations have been, however, the partners have always been first and foremost practicing architects and planners, and it is in the firm’s work that their theories find realization and validation. The early work of the firm was as controversial as the writing, because it embodied the challenges expressed in the theory. The Vanna Venturi House, for example, which Robert Venturi designed for his mother in the early 1960s, broke many of the rules that modern architects were expected to follow: the facade contained applied ornament and historical allusion, especially in its broken pediment and traditional, multipaned windows; the symmetry of the plan was distorted to acknowledge and accommodate the functions of the various parts; and the house was painted an unorthodox green. In turn reviled and revered, it has become an icon of the postmodern movement.
The Guild House, an apartment building for the elderly built in 1965. offended because it did not try to be heroic, but rather was "ugly and ordinary". It attempted to relate to the modest brick commercial and residential buildings around it. The tenants of the building were to be drawn from the surrounding neighborhood and the architects felt it was appropriate that the building reflect that neighborhood, rather than try to make an original architectural statement. This was achieved through the use of familiar (though subtly altered) elements such as red brick and double-hung windows. This concern for a building’s context, unusual at the time but commonplace today, has been a hallmark of the firm’s work from the beginning.
In urban planning, too, VRSB has made important contributions that have helped change conventional wisdom. In 1968, the firm, under the direction of Scott Brown, was retained to assist the Crosstown Community, a racially mixed area at the southern edge of Philadelphia’s city center, in proposing alternatives to a planned expressway that threatened to obliterate the neighborhood. The resulting plan was developed in consultation with the residents themselves and was based on their needs and aspirations. It called for the enhancement, in practical, incremental steps, of what was already present in the community, rather than destroying the old and (maybe) replacing it with something "better," the prevailing planning philosophy of the time.
The plan tried to show that beauty could emerge from the existing fabric and that a not-too-apparent order should be sought from within instead of an easy one imposed from above. That piecemeal development need not spell disunity.
This philosophy is accepted wisdom today, and has informed the firm’s subsequent planning efforts in such diverse communities as Miami Beach, Minneapolis, Memphis, and Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
Although the firm has been closely identified in the public mind with postmodernism, the partners have, in fact, strived to stay clear of stylistic labels, and the firm’s work shows a greater diversity than such designation might lead one to expect. This arises from a commitment to approach each project with an open mind, rejecting preconceptions and working to understand the traditions and needs of clients and users before arriving at design alternatives. Such an open process can lead to creative solutions that are at once appropriate and unexpected. At Philadelphia’s Franklin Court, for example, the National Park Service wished to create a monument to Benjamin Franklin on the site of his long-demolished home. Research could not turn up enough evidence to allow an accurate reconstruction of the house, so the firm designed a series of ghost structures in steel that suggest the outlines of the house and its outbuildings. Although certainly an unconventional approach, the result is far more honest�and even profound�than a conjectural reconstruction could ever have been.
Over the years, the firm has maintained a strong practice, completing more than 400 designs and projects in cities and campuses throughout the United States and in Italy and Iraq. Current projects include major museums in Seattle, Wash., Austin, Texas, and La Jolla, Calif.; an extension, the Sainsbury Wing, to the National Gallery in London; a new concert hall for the Philadelphia Orchestra; and projects for Princeton, Harvard, the University of Pensylvania, UCLA, and Dartmouth. The firm’s work has received extensive over 70 major design awards, including, in 1985, the American Institute of Architects Architectural Firm Award, for having "so profoundly influenced the direction of modern architecture".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1966, p. 17.
2. Ref. 1, p. 16.
3. Robert Venturi, D. Scott Brown, and S. Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, MIT Press, Boston, Mass., p. xvii.
4. Ref. 3, p. 90.
5. D. Scott Brown, "An Alternate Proposal That Builds on the Character and Population of South Street," Architectural Forum, 135(3) 44 (Oct. 1971).
6. "Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown Wins the 1985 AIA FirmAward," press release, American Institute of Architects, Washington, D.C., Feb. 1, 1985.
General References
1. R. Venturi and D. Scott Brown, A View from the Campidoglio: Selected Essays 1953-1984, Harper & Row, New York, 1984.
2. S. von Moos, Robert Venturi, John Rauch and Scott Brown: Buildings and Projects, Rizzoli, New York, 1987.
other books about Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi: Learning from Las Vegas – Revised Edition: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form
Robert Venturi: A View from the Campidoglio: Selected Essays, 1953-1984 (Icon Editions)
Robert Venturi: Complexity and contradiction in architecture: With a introd. by Vincent Scully (Museum of Modern Art papers on architecture, 1)
Conversations With Architects: Philip Johnson, Kevin Roche, Paul Rudolph, Bertrand Goldberg, Morris Lapidus, Louis Kahn, Charles Moore, Robert venturi
Robert Venturi: Complejidad y Contradiccion En La Arquitectura
Robert Venturi: Mother’s House
Robert Venturi: Two Responses to Some Immediate Issues
The Architecture of Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi: Aprendiendo de Las Vegas
The Architecture of Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi: L’enseignement de Las Vegas, ou, Le symbolisme oubli de la forme architecturale
Robert Venturi: Aprendendo com Las Vegas
Robert Venturi: Aprendiendo De Todas Las Cosas
Robert Charles Venturi, a bibliography (Architecture series : Bibliography)
Robert Venturi: Studio LLV: Learning from Las Vegas, or Form analysis as design research : third year studio
Robert Venturi: Ornament, Scale and Ambiguity
Robert Venturi: The Pritzker Architecture Prize 1991: Presented to Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi: Complexidade e Contradiao em Arquitetura
Venturi, Scott Brown e associati (Serie di architettura)
Robert Venturi’s architecture in review, 1967-1987 (Architecture series–bibliography)
Robert Venturi: Seattle Art Museum: Downtown : a building
Richard Meier
Jun 28th
Richard Meier was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1934. Richard Meier graduated from Cornell University in 1957 then worked with a series of architects, including Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and Marcel Breuer. Richard Meier established his own practice in 1963.
His practice has included housing and private residences, museums, high-tech and medical facilities, commercial buildings and such major civic commissions as courthouses and city halls in the United States and Europe: Among his most well-known projects are the High Museum in Atlanta; the Frankfurt Museum for Decorative Arts In Germany; Canal+ Television Headquarters in Paris; the Hartford Seminary In Connecticut; the Atheneun in New Harmony, Indiana, and the Bronx Developmental Center in New York. All of these have received National Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
In 1984, Mr. Richard Meier was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the field’s highest honor and often equated with the Nobel Prize. In the same year, Mr. Richard Meier was selected architect for the prestigious commission to design the new $1 billion Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.
Richard Meier has maintained a specific and unalterable attitude toward the design of buildings from the moment Richard Meier first entered architecture. Although his later projects show a definite refinement from his earlier projects, Richard Meier clearly authored both based on the same design concepts. With admirable consistency and dedication, Richard Meier has ignored the fashion trends of modern architecture and maintained his own design philosophy. Richard Meier has created a series of striking, but related designs. Richard Meier usually designs white Neo-Corbusian forms with enameled panels and glass. These structure usually play with the linear relationships of ramps and handrails. Although all have a similar look, Richard Meier manages to generate endless variations on his singular theme.
Richard Meier, the main figure in the "New York Five", which by the second half of the 1960′s, included some of the leaders of the Post-Modern movement – Peter Eisenman, John Hejduk, Michael Graves and Charles Gwathmey, creates designs with a unified theme based on neo-modern beliefs in purist architecture. Richard Meier ‘s white sculptural pieces have created a new vocabulary of design for the 1980s.
The three of the most significant concepts of Richard Meier ‘s work are Light, Color and Place. His architecture shows how plain geometry, layered definition of spaces and effects of light and shade, allow Richard Meier to create clear and comprehensible spaces. The main issue Richard Meier is focusing on as an architect, is what Richard Meier termed placeness: "What is it that makes a space a place." According to Richard Meier there are ten factors that connect a building to its environment, one or more of which must be present for a space to be a place: factors which cause the Mode of Being; those which emphasize the presence of the building as an independent object; factors which emphasize the presence of the building in its given environment; those which encourage fantasy and play; factors which encourage ecstatic exuberance; factors which preserve a sense of mystery and adventure; ingredients which connect us to reality; those which link the building to its past; facilitate spontaneous exchanges; and affirm people’s identity.
On the grounds of such theoretical definitons, it is interesting to see how space is transformed in Richard Meier ‘s architecture, from a rational play of forms into transcendental, quintessential forms framed by and interlaced in landscape. Especially in view of such declarations as: "Places are goals or foci where we experience the meaningful events of our existence, but there are also points of departure from which we orient ourselves and take possession of the environment. A place is something that evokes a notion of permanence and stability in us."
The Atheneum (1975-1979) is a Tourist and Information Center situated on the banks of the Wabash River on the outskirts of the historic city of New Harmony. Setting the three-story building diagonally to the river, gives the project a dynamic dimension asa departure point for the tour path. Fragments of the city framed in the windows of the exhibit space prepare the visitor for a general view seen from the roof gallery. Here, "sense of place" is achieved through a series of visual, physical or psychological experiences which gradually establish a relationship to the past, represented by the historic city. Porcelain panels, clear glass, constant play of wall thickness, the breadth of vistas, the height of the columns and openings which interconnect with one another, all create dynamic facades that change according to the interior and exterior experience of the building.
Hartford Seminary of Theology (1978-1981) in Connecticut is a relatively small building (3,000 sqm.), which includes all the campus functions originally distributed in various buildings: the church, Congress Hall, library, bookshop, classrooms, and administration. A building of spirituality, the integral values and characteristics of space and light are radiated without any false pretensions. As a religious introversive institution that also serves the community, the building is based on a fine separation between public and private space. The filtered light, clean forms and expressionist textures successfully contribute to endow a rather sacred atmosphere without disturbing the virtue of openness.
His white is never white since it is subject to constant change through the forces of nature: the sky, the weather, the vegetation, the clouds and, of course – the light. This is clearly portrayed in The High Museum of Art in Atlanta (1980-1983) – a project that has become Richard Meier ‘s hallmark in many respects – a classical manifestation of his profound allegiance to whiteness. A combination of asymmetrical compositions of various types of planes and masses based on transparent straight and curvilinear walls, form the exterior of the building. Its entrance atrium at the corner of one of the four clusters presents a tribute and memorandum to the Guggenheim museum. Yet unlike the original, in this museum a majestic ramp only provides access between the various levels, while the atrium walls include windows to allow for a view of the city brinqinq in natural light.
Spatial clarity and visual diversity create a clear hierarchy of spaces, giving the building a "classical" expression, in spite of its asymmetrical appearance. The monastic whiteness of the interior space maintains the minimalist presence of architecture in relationship to the exhibits, while the natural light causes a constantly changing interior.
The Museum for the Decorative Arts in Frankfurt (1979-1985) is another manifestation of Richard Meier ‘s sense of historic order. Here, Richard Meier converts the plan of a 19th century Villa Melzer into a public complex, reinforcing the connection with the unique historical context. Composed of two tilted grids, the plan balances the deviations of the original building in relation to the river. The choice of Richard Meier ‘s light and white scheme corresponds to the open character of space. Yet, unlike the use of light in Classical or Renaissance architecture, in this building the spiritual illuminating scheme of a Baroque character is adopted. Here again, illumination is not just perceived as a visual occurrence, but rather as an emotional and even spiritual phenomenon. Light and color do not just draw out the structural and functional properties of the building, but also call out an aesthetic response, creating a unique atmosphere, which generates positive emotions. Thus, the continuous dialogue between the building, its environment and its essential functionalism, acquires a didactic meaning.
Situated on a hill above Santa Monica, Los Angeles, the Paul Getty Center (1984-1997) is the most comprehensive work of Richard Meier, yet nonetheless a proof of the final decline of Post-Modernism. However, some would say that this ostentatious project recalls the timeless beauty of sixteenth century Italian villas and gardens, perhaps that of Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. The campus consists of six principal buildings that are situated on two natural ridges incorporated into the site’s topography. The tilting of the plan (that has tumed into Richard Meier ‘s light motive) is based here on the relationship between the route of the freeway to San Diego and the topographic orientation of the site.
Richard Meier ‘s choice of materials in this complex is quite untypical. Although the structure is clear and decipherable, it is complex in plan and overly rich in texture. The play of volumes and proportions, manifested in the cascade of terraces and balconies, flow of ramps, galleries, arcades and staircases, weave the interplay of nature and architecture, yet reflects affinity to Classical architecture.
Thus, one may conclude that the Getty Center portrays three key points that characterize good architecture: interaction, consistency and unity. Architectural quality is experienced when "architecture can be used for a long span of time, when it ages beautifully, is original, comprehensible and simple to use".
other books about Richard Meier
Richard Meier: Architect (Rizzoli Monographs on Richards Meier, Volume 2)
Richard Meier, Architect: A Selected Bibliography (No. A1462)
Richard Meier, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
Richard Meier (Works and Projects Series)
Richard Meier Building for Art
Richard Meier: Architetture, projects, 1986-1990 (Centro Di cat)
Museum Fur Kunsthandwerk: Richard Meier (Architecture in Detail)
Richard Meier : Sculpture, 1992/1994
Renzo Piano
Jun 28th
Renzo Piano was bom into a family of builders in Genoa, Italy in 1937. His grandfather, his father, four uncles and brother were all contractors and Renzo Piano admits, Renzo Piano should have been one too, but instead chose architecture. Renzo Piano was studying at Milan Poitechnic Architecture School. During his studies Renzo Piano was working under the design quidance of Franco Albini. After his graduation in 1964 Renzo Piano worked in his father’s company and during the time 1965-1970 Renzo Piano worked in offices of Louis I. Kahn in Philadelphia and ZS. Makowski in London. Other important influence Renzo Piano acknowledges, was Pierluigi Nervi. While still studying in Milan, Renzo Piano married a girt Renzo Piano had known from school days in Genoa, Magda Arduino. They have three children- 2 sons and the third child, daughter Lia, now 25, is pursuing a career in architecture.
Renzo Piano ‘s first important commission was in 1969 to design the Italian Industry Pavilion at Expo’70 in Osaka. The Expo project attracted much favorable attention, including that of another young english architect named Richard Rogers. The two architects found that they had a great deal in common and when an engineering firm suggested they worked together and enter the international competition for the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris; they did and won.
The result was a hundred thousand square meters in the heart of Paris, devoted to the figurative arts, music, industrial design and literature. In the two decades since it opened over a 150 000 000 people have visited it averaging more than 25 000 people per day – an overwhelming success – both with the people of Paris and international media. Both Rogers and Renzo Piano became recognizable names throughout the world.
Characteristics of this six-storey complex is visible technology in the form of construction grids, utility elements in bright colours and transparent pipes.
This building is often described as ,,high tech", but Renzo Piano prefers other modifiers. Renzo Piano says: ,,The centre was intended to be a joyful urban machine, a creature that might have come from a Jules Verne book, or an unlikely looking ship in dry dock. It is a double provocation: a challenge to academicism, but also a parody of the technological imagery of our time. To see it as high-tech is misunderstanding."
One of the casualties of this project, which required years of living in Paris, however, was Renzo Piano ‘s marriage. His wife preferred to Five in Genoa, so they separated. In 1989 Renzo Piano met Emilia Rossato when she came to work for his Renzo Piano Building workshop. They were married in 1992 by Jacques Chirac and they live in Paris and divide their time between offices in Paris and Genoa with frequent trips to his many projects around the world.
The Rano-Rogers collaboration remained 6 years; in 1977 Rogers moved his office from Paris to London, where Renzo Piano designed number of interesting buildings.
In 1995, Renzo Piano was called upon to renovate the Centre Georges Pompidou, because the popularity of the place needed to expand library and exhibition place and to reorganize public spaces. The renovation was reopened on the eve of new miilenium, December 31,1999.
Renzo Piano ‘s principal work includes more than 40 worid-famous projects, as museums, galleries, churches, music parks, institutes and national centers, shopping centers, bridges, reconstructions of squares, airports etc.
One of his most famous museum is De Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. It was in 1982, that art collector Dominique de Menil contacted Renzo Piano to design a museum for her collection, which embodied more than 10 000 works of primitive and modem art. The museum was intended also as a centre for music, literature, theatre and cultural educational activities. It is located in a small park surrounded by low residential housing, and it is characteristic because of its simplicity, flexibility, open spaces and illumination with natural light Renzo Piano designed special roof of ,.leaves" of thin ferrocement which lets the light inside the exhibition rooms and to which additional liqhts could be easily attached.
Renzo Piano compares this museum with Centre Pompidou and says: " Paradoxically, the Menil Collection with its great serenity, its calm and its understatement is far more modern than Centre Pompidou. The technological appearance of Pompidou Centre is parody. The technology used for the Menil Collection is even more advanced, but it is not. On the other side of the world in Noum, New Caledonia, Rano was doing The Tjibaou Cultural Centre Rano explained that the project adressess the dfficulties of finding a way to express traditions of the Pacific in modem anguage. His concept is genuine village composed on ten structures of different sizes and functions. The largest is as tall as nine storey building. The ten structures of the ceter are organized into three villages: One is devoted to exhibition, another is for administrative staff, historians and other offices; the third is for creative activities such as oance, painting, sculpture and music. The constructions are curved structures resembling huts, built out of joists and ribs and Renzo Piano adds: ,,They are an expression of the harmonious relationship with the environment, that is typical for the local culture."
One of his latest projects was to design an airport in Osaka, Japan. Since Osaka had no room for an airport, the authorities decided to build an artificial island for it in the bay. Kansai Air Terminal is a structure with undulating, asymmetrical lines and is capable of handling 100 000 passengers a day and it is the largest building Renzo Piano ever designed.
In January, 1995, Kobe suffered an earthquake. Kansai is the same distance from the epicenter as Kobe. The intensity of the shock was the same, but Renzo Piano reports: ,,Kansai registered no damage, not even broken glass."
Renzo Piano was awarded about 30 prizes since 1978 till 2000. The most prestige were The Pritzker architecture prize, which Renzo Piano received in 1998 in White House, Washington, USA and The Wexner Prize in 2001 also received in USA, in Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio.
other books about Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano–Fondation Beyeler
Renzo Piano
Aurora Place: Renzo Piano in Sydney
Renzo Piano Building Workshop – Volume 3 (Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Paperback))
Renzo Piano: Architecture Monograph/Monografico Arquitectura (Section)