Inside Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the documentary that chronicles the work of one of the world’s most important architectural firms, will be presented in the episode of Art Night, the art program hosted by Neri Marcorè on Rai5 on Jan. 18, 2023, after its screening at the Biografilm Festival in Bologna and the Italian Contemporary Film Festival in Toronto.
The documentary, by Francesca Molteni directed by Claudia Adragna and Davide Fois, recounts the Renzo Piano Building Workshop as a laboratory, indeed an Italian-style workshop. A place where research, experimentation and collective production take place. The charisma of the architect is balanced by the activism of the working group. Here, models are created and discussed, like reasoning made with hands; because, as Piano always says, “if something doesn’t stand on its own, it’s not worth the effort to make it.”
They work as a team, as in a construction site: “a construction site of ideas alongside the construction site of hands and the construction site of stones.”
“We were able to enter as attentive spectators,” explained Francesca Molteni, “into one of the most important architectural firms in the world. What goes on in here is the miracle of creation: from the design sketches to the strong physicality of a building site under construction. Behind it all is the presence of Renzo Piano, an inspirer of ideas, with two of his greatest qualities: being a mentor while still managing to distance himself from a project, and his extraordinary ability to visualize the problem and find the right solution.”
The documentary showcases the RPBW method what goes on in the Punta Nave studios in Genoa and Paris, on construction sites in Europe, Asia, and America in the studio’s internal working meetings, interviews with consultants and clients.
Five projects were chosen and followed for 18 months in different stages of conception and realization: the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, opening in 2021, a construction site with high representational content (the imagination factory); CERN’s Science Gateway in Geneva, Switzerland, still under construction, a construction site with high community content (the science factory); the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris Saclay, completed in 2020, a research construction site in a large park with high educational content (the knowledge factory); the SNF Thessaloniki Children’s Hospital in Thessaloniki, Greece, a sustainable construction site with high humanitarian content (the health factory); and the Marunouchi Tokio Marine in Tokyo a technological construction site in the center of the city with high symbolic content (the work factory).
Five different places, three continents, five social and environmental contexts that have little in common except the RPBW method.
CREDITS
A film by Francesca Molteni
Curated by Fulvio Irace
Directed by Claudia Adragna and Davide Fois
Editing Silvia Biagioni
Photography Timon de Graaf Boelé
Camera Timon de Graaf Boelé, Davide Fois and Jacopo Loiodice
Sound Massimiliano Santillo and Daniele Sosio
Graphics Marco di Noia
Color Diego Diaz
Sound design Tommaso Barbaro
Production assistant Greta Giussani
Translations Annalisa di Liddo
Produced by Muse Factory of Projects
Running time: 52 minutes
Year of Production: 2021
Country of Production: Italy
Language: French, English, Italian
Subtitles: English
