Educational Media Reviews Online

A fascinating and revealing portrait of the architect and his working methods, this film provides an introduction to Renzo Piano’s artistic philosophy as an architect. Included are his early background in the seaport of Genoa, as the son of a builder, and especially the collaborative working methods of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Then the film follows three of Piano’s notable projects at different stages of progress: the initial conception and modeling of the Paul Klee Museum in Bern; the initial conception and later opening of the reconstructed Potsdamer Platz in Berlin; and the siting and planning of the Nola Cultural and Commercial Center in Italy. Each case features differing initial starting points, including a geomorphological model, a site flyover, and research into historical background, all followed by the to and fro free interchange of ideas among Piano and his team of architects, engineers, and maquette makers, in their efforts to arrive at answers to the specific problems of these projects in terms of the site, function, or the financial and social contexts. An outstanding film!