Architecture prize winner "RENZO PIANO"

RENZO PIANO

1998 Pritzker Architecture prize winner Piano was born in Genoa, where he still maintains a home and office (Building Wokshop). He was educated and subsequently taught at the Politecnico di Milano. He worked with some of the all time greats of architecture viz.. Louis Kahn,Makowsky, Richard Rogers and also had a long collaboration with the extraordinary engineer Peter Rice.
His major interests lie in elegantly expressed structures which is evident in his early works such as the Centre Pompidou, IBM travelling pavilion, and Kansai International Airport. Renzo Piano was responsible for the master plan for the reconstruction of the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, and also designed a portion of the new construction on the site.Featured here are two of his well-known projects : The Maison Hermes and the recently approved The Sharp London Bridge (Shard of Glass).

Maison Hermès

In a sketch from May 1998, Renzo Piano depicts in his distinctive style, the façade of the Maison Hermès, calling it a “Changing skin”. In this formula lies the secret of the Japanese project. The glass diaphragm stands out without a crown against the sky, its volume of 2500 m2 soaring above the ground. The enchantment of this flying curtain unfolds as it displays the colors of the light at different times of day and night, ranging from white to blue,
to gold and silver.

Surprising in its hermetic effect of continuous non- reflecting mantle, the building, nullifies its natural transparency, entirely concealing its frame, making it invisible and concealed behind the luminous, glowing shield.

Constrained by the size of the lot, 45 meters in length by only 11 in width, the headquarters of the Parisian fashion house leaves the function of molding space to the particular effect of glass tiles. In compliance with the strict anti-seismic laws of Japan, the suspended facade consists of 12,999 units of reinforced concrete and glass tiles measuring 42.8 x 42.8 x 12 cm, similar to the size of a Hermès scarf, and weighing 16 kg each. Each tile was baked in a hardening furnace for 13 hours, then treated manually with a special paint designed to provide a mirror finish that increases the refraction of light. The wall, devoid of shadows, acts as a veil, separating itself from the primary structural mesh made of steel. The wall is supported by its own independent static system consisting of a second autonomous structure made of vertical paired rods.

This dual structure confers greater flexibility on the main skeleton, whose elasticity, regulated by viscose joints, attenuates telluric stress. The 22 mm joints thus guarantee a tolerance of 5 mm in case of seismic movements.
To let the light slide over the building, a curved corner solution was adopted, using special tiles of 24 x 21 x 12 cm. The entire module and its perfect mathematical reiteration govern the 6500 m2 distributed over three basement levels and twelve floors above ground, containing shops, offices, exhibition spaces, a subway station and roof garden.

The Maison Hermès distills an image of the shopping place marked by exceptional structural quality. It is a superb lesson taught by a master always attentive to the expressive capacity of glass as a building material.