Category: First Year

Renzo Piano at Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Academy features some of Renzo Piano’s most important projects in this exhibition on his career. Iconic works including The Shard, the Centre Pompidou and the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre are showed here.
It’s fascinating to understand the amount of time and resources involved in each project. The progression from his first hand drawn sketches to the actual final building. The way Piano meets and tries to understand communities giving an essential meaning to the social context around the projects.
It’s also inspirational to discover the importance of the “piazza” for the Italian architect, a space he sees as vital to create a social feeling. “A piazza is an empty space with no function. A space without function allows one to be ‘in the moment’, he says. 
This is an unmissable opportunity to discover more in depth the pioneering works of this visionary architect.

    Modernist architecture in London

    Alexandra Road Estate – Neave Brown – 1972
    This is a beautiful example of modernist architecture. We are in the London Bourogh of Camden. The Alexandra Road Estate is one of the most recognised housing block of the entire England. Construction works started in 1972 and were completed only in 1978 after many delays. It’s a complex of three blocks, four to eight floors tall. They were built next to the national railway. To avoid the vibration from the trains running just a few meters away the entire structure seats on rubber pads. With over 520 apartments, the Estate also includes a school, a community center and many other facilities. 
    Walking through the blocks you can see how the sharp concrete edges predominate all over. The green on the balcony though makes everything smoother and lighter. 
    There is no better way to really feel the style of the ’70s than visiting this symbolic piece of architecture.