Renzo Piano is the subject of a major monographic show at the Royal Academy

Buildings.

‘Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings’ (15 September 2018 to 20 January 2019) is the first architectural exhibition to grace the Royal Academy’s new Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries, and has claim to be the first ‘comprehensive’ London show on the 80-year-old architect’s work for almost 30 years. It is focussed on 16 major buildings, mostly of a recent vintage, including London’s Shard, New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, and the 1971 Centre Pompidou, jointly designed with Richard Rogers. Though these are mostly well-known – to architects, at least –their stories are told with the aid of lesser-known archival material, models, drawings and photos, with the intention to reveal the process behind their realisation. Another installation brings together 100 of Piano’s projects on an imaginary island. Photographic portraits and a purpose-made film provide further insights into the architect’s own sensibilities.

Ampetheatre

Top: Assembling the vault of the sulphur mining plant, Pomezia, Italy (1966). The fibreglass structure could be repositioned to follow the process of sulphur extraction along the production line (ph: RPBW/Fondazione Renzo Piano).
Above: Sketch of the California Academy of Sciences, with notes by Piano (ph: RPBW).

Visit the Royal Academy website for further information and tickets

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