Renzo Piano

The Centre Pompidou in Paris was inaugurated in 1977. It is a collaboration between Italian architect Renzo Piano and British architect Richard Rogers (later each won the Pritzker Prize for Architecture). It should also be regarded as the achievement of Renzo Piano. One of the masterpieces. The Centre Pompidou was once regarded by the public as a kind of brazen desecration of Paris’ traditions because of its industrial appearance incompatible with the historical texture of Paris. The exposed architectural pipelines and exaggerated use of colors set off a period of time in the European architecture circle at that time. Waves. Now Pompidou Center has been widely recognized by the public, and it has become a landmark building in the district, and it can even be said to be a landscape in the city, a new urban style created by the building itself. But I think that apart from the new urban street atmosphere created by the Centre Pompidou, there is another very fascinating place, that is the square in front of it. Located in the intricate streets and alleys, Pompidou Central Plaza is a very successful design. The terrain is slowly brought down, allowing citizens and tourists to sit on the ground very casually. Therefore, this square has become a key point. Between the museum building and the surrounding street shops, it opens up a spacious field for the urban street network. People have many motivations and reasons to stay here, and all kinds of behaviors and activities are there. It may happen that if you can look down on this square from the heights of Pompidou Center, you can even feel the rich diversity happening in it. The entire planning and design is embraced by the city. It seems that they interact and influence each other as if they are all alive. It is hard to imagine that this "obtrusive" building is now such a coordinated existence. If you say that all the results are planned and designed. It is intentional, so I really admire the architect's foresight.

Another impressive work by Renzo Piano was completed in 2005. It was the addition of the High Museum in Atlanta. At this time, Piano's design skills have been quite washed out. From the overall planning and design of this museum, one can see a realm of great ingenuity. This extension project is a very interesting case, because the original High Museum is a masterpiece in the 1980s by another American modern architect Richard Meier who has also won the Pritzker Prize. It is quite famous in the contemporary American architecture circle. Because of its spiral ramp movement, it is regarded as a successful tribute to Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York, and all this adds a lot of challenges to this extension.

So the question arises. The original project is a successful case completed by a famous master. Should the additional design project be high-key and one-to-one, or should it be low-key? Should the dialogue between the two adopt an ambiguous attitude, or should it boldly challenge the existing authority like the Louvre Pyramid? In the early stages of planning, there are too many things to be considered and decided, and at this time, we can see Piano's clumsy skill. The architect decided to make the added building a supporting role (but by no means a vase). The volumetric shape is composed of a few simple boxes, and the facade is made of white tiles, which also echoes Richard Meier’s white paranoia. The square atrium space surrounded by the middle is connected with the original geometric small square of the art gallery, and the connection of the moving lines is also very reasonable. But these are only the "clumsy" part, and there are many subtle key points that I deliberately did not mention, but these are the "smart" parts of the whole design project and the essence of the whole case.

First of all, Richard Meier's design works, formerly known as the New York White School, have a well-known feature in addition to white: the use of geometric elements. The High Museum clearly demonstrates Meier’s two major features. Except for the pure white exterior walls, both the plane configuration and the shape design are based on the principle of dislocation of geometric figures, and then the virtual reality of the volume is used to emphasize the sense of local space. . At first glance, the square boxes that Piano deployed in the expansion project seem to be lazy. Once placed next to Meier’s work, it turns out to be extremely harmonious. This is because the size and proportions of each box refer to the original. The geometric volume configuration of the museum, and the simpler the geometric shape, the easier it is to achieve a sense of abstract harmony through mathematical proportions. In addition to the white bricks on the exterior wall that I mentioned just now to pay tribute to Meier, there is also a hidden trick. Although Piano did not deal with the tiling completely according to the division of the original building's facade, he carefully chose the size of the bricks to match the division ratio of the existing building. In other words, he used different sizes for the division of the tiles. It's the same rhythm. The effect of this design is immediate. The new additions will not be regarded as just flattering the original building, but still show an attitude of absolute respect. At the same time, it will significantly help to create a sense of integrity between the new and the old.

Next, Piano unreservedly demonstrated the exquisiteness of his architectural detail design in this extension project. Many people know that "the devil is hidden in the details", but in the field of architecture, angels are also hiding in the details. I have seen a few construction projects in Atlanta during that time. The construction level is generally not high, perhaps because the supervision is not careful enough or the quality of the workers is not good enough (mostly temporary workers in Central and South America), but the High Museum expansion case The structure is clear and concise, and there are not too many complicated details. At the same time, the details of the interface of each material are explained clearly. So in this case, I saw the architect's professional level in structural logic, so I used "chain washing" to describe Piano. In addition, Piano is also very troublesome in the selection of materials, especially in order to express the lightness and transparency of the curtain, he determined the size of the metal frame with the overall proportion of the glass curtain, and sought the owner to choose high-priced glass with extremely high transparency. , So that the hall and the atrium of the new museum of the art museum reach a perfect connection with almost no barriers, and the outdoor scenery is smoothly drawn to the indoors, and people's sight on the ground floor can be extended and extended. Of course, those who are a little familiar with this case must also know that Renzo Piano adopted an original lighting design in this case, which is a mechanism that can filter natural light into soft light and then diffuse it into the room. In order to allow visitors to have a better light environment to appreciate the artworks in the museum, Piano conceived this new type of roof lighting cover. It can also be seen that the architect is not only actively innovating and experimenting, but also in environmental control. Very hard work.

From the case of Centre Pompidou, we can also know that Renzo Piano has been an architect who is good at dealing with the dialogue between architecture and the environment when he was young. This is even more certain in the master plan of the High Museum extension project. In fact, when I visited the site, the solid base analysis and space planning were the first thing that fascinated me. In this case, Piano gave himself many tasks, including the environment and the texture of the community: achieving harmonious coexistence with the original buildings, connecting open spaces, creating a complete street space, matching urban textures... etc. I have already mentioned how Piano coordinated the planning and design of Richard Meier's old museum buildings. In fact, he also took care of the urban environment outside the existing buildings. In the ㄇ-shaped mass configuration plan, the architect used the smooth facade sequence of the building complex to give a clear definition of the street space. This method is not necessarily applicable to other bases, but the base of this case is located in a quieter community, adjacent to an art academy and the High Museum subway station, and facing two narrow streets on the side, Piano is convenient It was decided to position the adjacent surfaces of the extension project as secondary façades, one side of which is the service flow line, and the use of "permeation" to allow the flow line to flow from the atrium to the surrounding streets through a narrow passage, so that it can be Maintain the tranquility of the original community as much as possible while defining the boundaries of the street. The volumetric shape and scale do not impose pressure on the street space, and can also be used for other buildings in the surrounding environment (low residential buildings or office buildings) Contained.

Strictly speaking, the area of ​​the base of this project is not large, but the architect, like a magician, has created an atrium space that I think is the spiritual center of the whole project, letting it play the role of communication and connect the open space with the old and new moving lines at the same time. It satisfies the needs of the base positioning and urban environment. Everything happens in a very limited plane space, not to mention the basic functions such as architectural space, visit quality and art collection. Each visit at a different time, All make me feel the infinite responsibility that architects should shoulder.