Renzo Piano: Parco Della Musica
I don’t
agree with the theory that architects should only design the
façade. Though David did provide us with many successful examples, I think this approach is only effective for certain
types of buildings and uses. This theory also begins to bring up previous
topics from the beginning of the semester about autonomous architecture and ‘what
is an architect’s role?’.
In class
we briefly discussed Renzo Piano’s project Centro Botin building which is all
about the design of its façade, but I want to speak towards a different project
by him which we saw in Rome: Parco della Musica.
This
project features 3 concert halls cladded in lead panels and red brick. My first
impression was that these building felt cold and inward facing, however, once
you stepped inside the materials chosen were welcoming and warm. Again, one encounters the same brick, but
this time paired with American-cherry wood paneling. Unlike the flat exterior brick walls, the interior brick walls were deliberately uneven
within the theaters. Additionally, we were told that the cherry wood was
specifically chosen for its acoustic properties and is the same wood used to
create string instruments. In fact, Piano designed the wood panels in each ‘music
box’ to adjust depending on the type of orchestra playing and the acoustics needed
within each space.
I
thought this was a beautiful project where its attention to detail made the human experience much more valuable and enjoyable. Since this project's use is a public music
complex, this project would not have been as successful if Piano just focused
on designing the façade.
My initial reaction to what was talked about in class was to not take the extreme of architects only designing the facade. That step seems a bit drastic. What you are referring to here is the envelope that created this "user experience". When compared a facade and an envelope, the step becomes much smaller, and potentially more beneficial for architects. Much of the idea of sustainability within a building relates to the envelope and the drawings that complement it. Much of what we are doing in studio is not only providing envelope details, but designing them to be beautiful and meaningful to our core concept of our project.
ReplyDeleteAlso great example of a intelligently crafted building from inside and out.
Absolutely loved seeing this project in Rome.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about project type is spot on. The reason this project is NOT about the facade is because it's a performing arts center. It's a very inward focused program.
But I also have such a hard time talking about a project by a starchitect in this discussion. Renzo Piano is able to command seemingly infinite budgets to do this stuff. For average Joe, the inside is so much more tightly controlled by the client. I think what Zaera-Polo was getting at. The facade is usually where clients readily release design control because it doesn't directly affect the building's use and function.