SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

Centre for Modern Architecture Studies in Southeast Asia (MASSA)

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Foundation in Natural and Built Environments

Module: ENGLISH 1 (ENGL 0105 / ELG 30505)
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 5
Instructor: Thivilojana (603-56295624;[email protected])

Name: Eric Lo Yann Shin

Student I.D: 0324922
Module: English 1
Session 1 August, 2015

Pre- writing
Buildings are important to human being. Architects design the buildings. Renzo
Piano is one of the worlds famous architects. The two well-known buildings he
designed are Centre Goerges Pompidau and Auditorum Parco Dell Musila. The
Centre Goerges Pompidau building is a 10-storey building which is 3 below and 7
above the ground. Meanwhile, Auditorum Parco Dell Musila is larger in size
compared to Centre Goerges Pompidau which is divided into 14 parts. Ultimately,
both of these buildings which are designed by Renzo Piana are amazing because it
fulfills peoples needs.

Pre- writing

Buildings are
important to
human being

Architects design
the buildings

Carry out activities

Renzo Piano is one

of the worlds
famous architects

Centre Goerges
Pompidau
Buildings designed
by Renzo Piano

Auditorum Parco
Dell Musila
Feedback towards
his designed
buildings

Amazing, because
it fulfills people's
needs.

10-storey building
which is 3 below
and 7 above the
ground

larger in size
compared to
Centre Goerges
Pompidau which is
divided into 14
parts.

Centre Goerges Pompidau

Auditorum Parco Dell Musila

Renzo Piano, an Italian architect and engineer

In our daily life, we often carry out activities inside a building. A building has
numerous functions and benefits to human beings despite the size or design of the
building. In general, we know that an architect designs a building and a contractor is
the one who is obligated to construct the building. In conjunction with buildings, I
would like to highlight two unique buildings which are designed by Renzo Piano, who
is one of the worlds well-known architects. Renzo piano was born in 1937 and he is
an Italian architect. His company is known as Renzo Piano Building Workshop which
located in Paris since 1981. His company has completed over 120 projects
throughout the world, especially in Europe, United States of America and Asia. This
company has 12 partnerships and it is consisted of 130 to 160 employees around
the world. Throughout this essay, I will be sharing the differences of two unique
buildings designed by Renzo Piano.
These two buildings are Centre Goerges Pompidau and Auditorum Parco Dell
Musila. They have significant differences in terms of their functions, structures and
sizes. Centra Goerges Pompidau in English is known as Pompidou Centre, it is
located in Paris, France and it can be recognized as a museum of modern art.
However, its functions are more than a museum because there is a library, cinema
and a spectacular terrace built within the building. While the Auditorum Parco Dell
Musila, it is normally called music factory and it is a multi-purpose outdoor auditorium
for special events. The building is constructed based in Rome,Italy. In contrast, the
Audirorum Parco Dell Musila is larger in land usage and area than the Centra
Goerges Pompidau. The area of Audirorum Parco Dell Musila is about 24,570
metres square, while the Centra Goerges Pompidau is only about 11,050 metres
square.
The construction of Centra Goerges Pompidau is completed in 1977 and the cost for
the establishment is approximately USD 933 million. The height of the building is 42
metres which consists of seven floors above ground level and three floors below the
ground level. The height of each floor within this column-free building is 7 metres.
The main materials used for the construction of this building are steel frame and
reinforced concrete. The interesting part of this building is the entire services of the
building in aspect of mechanical, electrical, ventilation and transportation systems
are installed at outer of the building. The escalators within the building are covered
by transparent tubes in front of the building starting from the first floor to the fifth
floor. From the outer view of this building, you may notice some colour-coded utilities
are installed along the building. The blue colour is for ventilation system, green
colour is for the water piping system, yellow colour is for the electrical system and
the red colour is specially made for vertical circulation system.
In contrast, the Auditorum Parco Dell Musila is completely constructed in 2004 and
its construction cost is about USD 20 Billion. The whole building is divided into 14
parts to serve a vast amount of people at one time. Thus, the height of the building is
varied. The cavea is an outdoor auditorium that can accommodate approximately
3000 people. The building is constructed with pre-cast concrete structure delivered
and made from the factory. Ultimately, it contains three concert halls, a theatre
studio, three studios, a foyer and a cavea. The interior of the building is surrounded
by a lot of electrical and mechanical services. Therefore, it is contained exceptional
safety feature systems such as motor disabilities for exits, fire-proof elevators, safe
confined area and a pathway specially made for the blind to enhance the safety of
the building.

Indeed, the design of Renzo Piano is fascinated by the world and it has fulfilled the
occupants need. According to the comparison of these buildings, I prefer centre
Goerges Pompidau more than Auditorum Parco Dell Musila due to the rareness of its
design which all the utilities are placed externally. This particular idea required a lot
of skills in terms of installing, protecting and maintaining these utilities. In addition, I
also learnt that different buildings have their pros and cons to fulfill the needs of
human being. Therefore, we can only judge the buildings based on its conceptual
design but not the features of the building because different building provides
different demand for human being.

References:
1 Turismoroma.it, (2015), Auditorium Parco della Musica. Turismo Roma,
retrieved October 21, 2015 from http://www.turismoroma.it/chi-siamo?lang=en
2 Fondazione.R, (2015) Musica per Roma Foundation. Auditorium.com,
Retrieved
October
21,
2015
http://www.auditorium.com/en/auditorium/chi-siamo/

from

3 Unknown Author, (2015), Parco della Musica. Wikipedia, retrieved

October 21, 2015 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parco_della_Musica
4 Renzo Piano Building Workshop, (2015), Renzo Piano Building Workshop Projects - By Type - Centre Georges Pompidou, Rpbw.com retrieved October
21, 2015 from http://www.rpbw.com/project/3/centre-georges-pompidou/
5 Engineering Timelines, (2015), Centre Georges Pompidou. Engineeringtimelines.com retrieved October 21, 2015 from http://www.engineeringtimelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1275
6 Unknown Author, (2015), Centre Georges Pompidou.Wikipedia retrieved
October
21,
2015
from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Georges_Pompidou