Archives are extremely popular at the moment. In a way the word "archive" has turned into one of the most abused terms of our times, especially when used in the context of the fashion industry. Here an archive can be a well-organised entity attached to a historically famous house where young creative directors go and steal from the past or, in the case of younger designers and brands, a pile of random boxes in a corner, grandly described as "archive". Yet there are archives with very different purposes and dimensions, as proved by director Francesca Molteni.
In her brief documentary "The Importance of the Archive" Molteni takes us on a journey through the workshop of the Renzo Piano Foundation.
Molteni provides behind the scene footage showing the models being created and stored, plus the dossiers, drafts, sketches and drawings housed in a 3,000 sq meter converted factory in Genoa, and images of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop's Genoa studio, located in Punta Nave, on a terraced plot of land.
Including 60,000 drawings and 5,000 models, Piano's archive has Leviathan-like proportions and represents the "hidden part" of the iceberg. We usually see the final buildings created by Piano, but the archive contains the research and the studies behind them, so the two entities are interconnected and one can't exist without the other.
Yet, while some materials are being sent to or coming back from exhibitions all over the world, the purpose of the pieces stored here is not being merely showcased or displayed, but inspiring new generations. According to Piano, you can't indeed survive if you don't share your creativity.
The archive is therefore conceived as a living entity, a place with a strong didactic purpose: even badly done projects and sketches are stored here in the hope that one day they will be rediscovered or re-elaborated. Besides, we all learn from our mistakes, that's why it is important for an archive to store also those projects that never turned into reality.
The stored materials are also employed by Piano to show young people how an idea can be developed. Interviewed in the documentary, the architect states that it is important to detach oneself from beautiful drawings and computer renderings, that he calls the devil, and form in your mind an idea, an imprecise hologram of what a building may look like, remembering that the practice of visiting a building yard is fundamental to become more conscious about the physical space.
A passionate fan of Jean Prouvé, Piano shares with the students visiting his Fondazione and archives some of his secrets, from being inspired by everything in your life and practice - from Brunelleschi's dome to a humble shed - to learning to talk with ordinary people and with the members of the community you're working for. He also states it is vital to preserve your freedom and humbleness (the architect emphasizes the importance of the studio as a collective of people and not of Renzo Piano himself) and keep in mind sustainability - the possibility of making wisely designed buildings that can preserve energy should indeed put fantasy and imagination in motion.
Though narrated by an excessively enthusiastic and at times irritating voice, "The Importance of the Archive", has therefore got a few interesting lessons for students of different creative disciplines. The same can be said about "Renzo Piano – The Architect of Light" by award-winning filmmaker Carlos Saura. Both the documentaries are on this weekend during the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF; until tomorrow) in New York (check out the film schedule here).
Piano's teachings in Molteni's documentary are turned into practice in Carlos Saura's film. The latter follows the development of the Botín Centre in the bay of Santander, Spain. In 2010 Renzo Piano Building Workshop was commissioned the arts and cultural centre by Fondazione Botín, from an idea of Emilio Botín, founder and chairman of Banco Santander, who died in 2014.
Located on the waterfront of Santander, the cultural centre had to open up on the sea while guaranteeing the view onto the horizon. Though excited at the prospect of being able to play with the "luz" of Santander, the beautiful light bathing the city, Piano had to take into account several issues. Skeptical residents were indeed worried about the building turning into an obstruction and ending up blocking the view.
Inspired by his love for the sea and his passion for building with light that has characterised many of his projects for art institutions and museums, Piano came up with a structure divided into two separate volumes, suspended above the sea and elevated from the ground to allow people to stroll underneath it.
The two buildings frame the horizon and offer a sense of infinite space, they are trampolines on the water and give the sensation of being suspended in the air.
In the documentary the direct account of the construction phases turns into a sort of philosophical pondering about Piano's creative process, which, he explains is a combination of poetry and technê, the result of an equation between beauty, art and craftsmanship.
The documentary is about the theory and the inspirations behind the building and the evolution of a project, but it also looks at the beauty of the construction site: Piano, who developed a passion for visiting building sites with his father as a child, reminds us that after drawing or sketching on the paper you have to look at the real location to perceive the scale of a building and follow the construction phases. For Piano, building yards have got something extraordinary and miraculous about them because, in his opinion, a construction is magical.
There's something else magical for the architect: seeing the building finished and looking at the expressions of the people gazing at it.
The centre took almost 8 years to be completed: at a certain point of the documentary Saura confesses he has fallen in love with the skeleton of the building, but, little by little, the structure is radically transformed and covered with 270,000 ceramic eyes that shine under the sun.
Incorporating suspended gangway-like promenades opening onto the sea, once finished the building looks like a vessel, a ship ready to set sail (being born in Genoa, nautical influences have always been strong in Piano's works) that embodies all the principles Piano believes in – an architect's civic duty and social purpose and the possibility of preserving poetic values, since better buildings make better people.
"The Importance of the Archive" and "Renzo Piano: The Architect of Light" tie in with the retrospective "Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings", currently on at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (until 20th January 2019). The latter looks at 16 buildings designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, including The Shard in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, designed with Richard Rogers, and current projects still in the making.
Piano mentions in "The Architect of Light" Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, reminding us that in the book Marco Polo states that even the most horrible city has a corner of happiness, serenity and harmony. Hopefully, he will manage to keep on creating such corners also in further ambitious projects like the new bridge over Genoa that should reconnect the city and regenerate the area after the tragic collapse of the Morandi bridge in August this year.
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