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UNESCO, laboratory and workshop,
Renzo Piano, 1989-1991

  The structure on which a building stands is normally made out of materials from the place itself: it is like a bas-relief carved into the site. This means that every project has a topographical component. To interpret the placeform, every project requires a specific study, a deep understanding of its history, geography, geology, and climate.         

The studio has a spectacular route of access. The ascent from the road at sea level (the Scologio Nave) up to the cliffs where the greenhouse-laboratory is built is by means of a transparent elevator. This runs under the open sky along a very steep track: a sort of gorge that follows the profile of the mountainside.

joint detail model

The visible element that dominates the construction is the frame of the roofing, made out of beams of laminated wood. The whole structure is supported by slender uprights of steel. The coupling elements are also made of steel. The walls, on the other hand, are made out of glass panels with no frames, held in place solely by thing tongues of the same material. The outer wall has been faced with rough stone on the outside, finished with plaster and painted on the inside.

" Nature does things well, and careful observation of it can teach many things ..."

Building Workshop has taken another look at terra-cotta, wood and stone, elements that are found in the most ancient works of architecture, and has tried in some way to reinvent their use. Sometimes these materials have been given structural tasks, at others they have served as facings and ornamentation. In both cases the rediscovery of the functional properties of the materials has coincided with a reclamation of their expressive qualities in close relation to the context.

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