In 1969 Renzo Piano staged an exhibition at London's Architectural Association, Architectural Experiment. His early work drew sharp but prophetic criticism from Monica Pidgeon, editor of Architectural Design. In a review entitled 'Piece by Piece', she suggested that the various pieces produced by this young architect might well, one day, amount to something far more substantial. Almost 40 years on, Piano recalls this prophecy fondly. The observation has become his'natural legacy' recognising his predisposition to break a design problem into component parts, each addressed in order to optimise specific technical performance, while contributing something less measurable (yet equally important) to the building's overall character. Early work, he says, was all about the component, most explicitly pieced together at Beaubourg (AR May 1977). By Piano's own admission, however, the Menil Collection a decade later (AR March 1987) was the first building that genuinely reached a harmonious level of resolution. Since then, learning from nature, he has finessed and mastered the art of how to make buildings holistic entities that are greater than the sum of their component parts.
展开▼
