Tectonic Landscapes: An Analysis of Place-Making Strategies in Two Projects by Renzo Piano

This paper articulates the hypothesis that effective architectural design implies and benefits from an awareness of its embedding landscape. The work of Renzo Piano Building Workshop is used to exemplify this position. Two recent projects are analyzed: the new music auditorium in Rome, opened in 2002, and Aurora Place, a private office-residential development on the fringe of Sydney’s CBD, completed in 2001. In both cases, an argument will be made that the image of the building artifact is closely tied to the current and future functioning of the site. One cannot understand Piano’s buildings without tying them to the manipulation of the urban context and the organization of the topography: site strategies are as important as construction craft in defining the characteristics and quality of the project. This is a significant lesson at both a professional and academic level. Urban design helps the construction of the architecture and vice versa, yet neither one can be completely trusted without the other.

Volume Editors
Marilys R. Nepomechie & Robert Gonzalez

ISBN
0-935502-54-8