The Triennale di Milano presents Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Le città visibili, a superb anthological exhibition featuring the work of Renzo Piano and opening the Festa per l’Architettura – 4th edition.

The subtitle of the exhibition is based on the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, one of the writers who had the greatest influence on the architect’s awareness.
The extraordinary urban vision of Piano’s architecture is exhibited here in the original designs, plans and models documenting over forty years of production, against the backdrop of the transformations that have marked the transition from the 20th century industrial city to the 21st century post-industrial city.

Renzo Piano’s projects can be seen as an attempt to rekindle and revamp the humanistic tradition of the European city, reworking its architectural design principles in the context of contemporary culture.

Whether it is the Parisian prototype of the Beaubourg, the Lingotto factory conversion in Turin, the Cité Internationale in Lyons, the redevelopment of the old port in Genoa, or the Potsdamer Platz reconstruction in Berlin, Renzo Piano has worked on the transformation of the old model of the industrial city into the blueprint of the city of information and culture. Meanwhile, his experiments on the brown areas of Milan, Sesto San Giovanni, Lyons, Paris and Harlem in New York reflect the transition from the city of production to the city of exchange.

Piano’s city offers the idea of multi-purpose spaces that convey the restlessness of contemporary life by placing the accent on complexity, transparency and permeability.
His work on the consolidated architectural typology of the skyscraper redefines the relationship between the public and private spheres, as is apparent in the case of the New York Times Tower and the London Bridge Tower.
Piano’s projects act on stratification and addition in order to mirror contemporary layers of complexity. Added to this is his stress on the use of greenery in recognition of the importance of the natural element in architectural design.

In Milan, New York, Genoa or Rome, the traces of the past are not removed but reintegrated, using the ideal of lightness of touch as the starting point for design.
Le città visibili therefore launches an interpretation of Renzo Piano’s work hinging on the centrality of the urban vision based on several key core projects: the city of art, the city of music, the city of water, the city of love (Paris, New York, Genoa, Milan).

La Triennale di Milano

RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP
Le città visibili

22 May - 16 September 07
Admission : 8 € - 6 € - 5 €
Cure / by: Fulvio Irace
Renzo Piano Building Workshop exhibition space project with Franco Origoni
Catalogue: Electa