Legendary architect Renzo Piano — the mind behind such indelible buildings as The Shard in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the new Whitney Museum of Art in New York City — takes us on a stunning tour through his life’s work. With the aid of gorgeous imagery, Piano makes an eloquent case for architecture as the answer to our dreams, aspirations and desire for beauty. “Universal beauty is one of the few things that can change the world,” he says. “This beauty will save the world. One person at a time, but it will do it.”
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Renzo Piano · Architect
Renzo Piano is a builder of shelters for human beings. And communities.
The one building of Piano’s with which I have any experience at all is the Pompidou Center in Paris. Here are some observations about it:
The Pompidou Center is certainly one of the most outrageous absurd-looking structures ever built, but there is method in its madness. Namely, it’s built inside out: everything that would normally be inside a building – air conditioning ducts, plumbing, electrical wiring, and God knows what else – is stretched all over the outside. This means that the interior spaces, which were designed to be art galleries, are completely free of any clutter, open, and susceptible to any kind of structuring necessary for the display of artworks. And this seems to work perfectly – inside, which is what counts here, the Pompidou Center is probably the most user-friendly building I’ve ever been inside of.
What’s even more fun is that even the access to the various levels is on the outside of the building, in the shape of escalators running diagonally up and down the façade in a big glass tube, with landings at each floor. The “up” escalator is on the outside of the tube, of course, and the experience of riding it is quite remarkable. One rises slowly from the level of the piazza up to the rooftops, then beyond, the vast expanse of Paris laid out lie a silvery grey ocean with all the various monuments popping up. And, since the motion is on the diagonal, one’s perspective is constantly shifting. Well worth a ride when/if in the City of Light…
I just discovered, courtesy of the ever-fascinating Messy Nessy, that Renzo Piano also designed the reconstruction of the studio of Constantin Brancusi to be found in in the square in front of the Centre Pompidou. For more info:
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/Collections/Brancusi-s-Studio