Architecture, history, innovation, quality: elements contained in more 40 years of activitythat of Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which stopped at the Palazzo della Cultura in Catania to celebrate its anniversary. A promoted meeting by the CarlottaX association, which «since 2020, has been committed to the community, through cultural initiatives, medical research and the diffusion of the culture of architecture. Aspects taken care of with dedication by the architect Carlotta Reitano, who passed away prematurely and to whom our association is dedicated”, declares at the beginning Alexander Amaropresident of CarlottaX.
During the event – sponsored by the Municipality of Catania, by the Order and Foundation of Architects, Planners, Landscapers and Conservators of the Etna province – space for the overview of some of the most representative works of the Renzo Piano studio, which is found in Center Georges Pompidou in Paris the most iconic and meaningful structure. A result that is not only professional, but also an example of quality and inventiveness, making it an “architectural manifesto hi-tech” and one of the most visited monuments of the French capital. «Precisely from his experience – explains the president of the Order Veronica Leone – all architects can learn from it, especially the younger ones. During one of our meetings, he himself urged participation in design competitions, which can mark, as it did for him, a professional turning point.” The leap to reality in Catania is easy and short for Leone, which she finds in two-phase competitions the winning weapon for a city that needs quality architecture. «For years – he underlines – our Order has been working to raise awareness among the Etna Municipalities to use this procedure, which reduces implementation times and rewards the functionality and quality of the project».
There lectio magistralis of the architect Paolo Colonna – a leading figure of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop – confirms the “creed” of the studio, which sees “design as one of the greatest possible adventures” and the architect as a “frontier profession, poised between art and science. On the border between invention and memory, suspended between the courage of modernity and the prudence of tradition”. A theory that finds its reflection in practice, «with a spectacular intrinsic link with the structure – states the president of the Foundation Eleonora Bonanno – A split between the architectural and engineering aspects never emerges. A strong point and a type of approach to be promoted for quality and safe buildings, especially in a fragile territory like ours, where historic buildings are weak and subject to risk.”
Feature analyzed and highlighted in the specific “Architecture and Structure” session, curated by the engineer Carlo Amaro: «The synergy between the two disciplines – he highlights – must lead to a design that makes the structure itself an architectural element, giving strength, stability and safety from an engineering point of view, harmony and quality from an architectural one». A cooperation today facilitated by new materials and stimuli, such as sustainability. «Innovation, technique, technology, studies and experimentation are the elements that characterize our studio and that allow us to invent the architecture of tomorrow, thanks to artificial intelligence and new tools – comments Paolo Colonna – An even more stimulating contamination in a country like Italy, where we are used to dialogue between the past and the future, between history and all that is modern technology, in a path that will allow us to raise the quality level”.
