On the theme of of inspiring videos, I submit a Charlie Rose interview of Renzo Piano, whose Chicago Art Institute addition I wrote about in my first post. Piano insists that an architect is above all a BUILDER (his architecture firm is called “Renzo Piano Building Workshop”), and that at its core, architecture is making shelter.
But at the same time he says architects are also POETS, and HUMANISTS. He claims that architecture is an art of building emotions, especially emotions about beauty. Beauty, he claims, is one of the few human emotions that can compete with true power (money, might, destruction, etc.). Fantasy is good, he claims, but like marmalade, it is best in small doses, and when spread on great piece of bread.
The biggest lesson he learned from his early career, especially the ground-breaking design for the Pompidou Museum in Paris, is a certain amount of stubbornness, to stand behind one’s ideas, and rebelliousness, to challenge conventions, the status quo, and the obvious. Where cultural institutions used to be monumental fortresses, he sought to create open, inviting, temples of light that aroused curiosity for a broad public. Continue reading
Kai's Notes on Architecture 