Genius Loci

An architect has a clear social task and is always part of the organization of society.

Since ancient times, someone did the hunting and someone made sure there was shelter,

The architect is a Robinson Crusoe today,

As in the past, you have to take possession of the location,

Understand the climate,

The atmosphere,

And the genius loci.

You must capture the spirit of that place in order to construct something beautiful and useful.

Architecture is at the edge,

Between art and anthropology,

Between society and science,

Technology and history,

Sometimes memory, too, plays a part.

Architecture is about illusion and symbolism, semantics, and the art of telling stories.

It is a funny mixture of these things.

Sometimes it is humanistic,

And sometimes it is materialistic.

by Renzo Piano

The Process of Design

When I start a new job I like to walk around the site for a long time with my hands in my pockets,

Just going around...

By doing that you feel what happens...

You get away from the risk of being theoretical, of making something wrong...

You go to the site once, you go twice, then you go back.

You think, but you don’t draw.

You wait.

You start to build up your ideas,

And then you go back there.

And this is quite typical of my behavior.

I like to do that.

Architecture is about passion...

But you have to have enough lucidity in the passion to understand that something is wrong,

So you cannot fall in love with a specific solution or then you never come back.

You need the lucidity from time to time to look and to say no, that is wrong.

by Renzo Piano

Rebellion And Freedom

I was always a disobedient youngster.

I always used to make my mother cry.

But artistic “disobedience” is civil disobedience,

Because if you want to do something you will always end up disobeying.

If you obey you are finished.

Architecture is a great adventure and a fight against gravity.

I rebel against the obvious,

And I hate the idea of style and the formulaic gesture.

by Renzo Piano