Starting with co-credits for the Pompidou Centre in Paris in the 70s and through to the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Centre in New Caledonia and most recently for The Shard in London, Piano is a true contexturalist in his approach to design ( No “house –style” per se, so always responsive and original )

http://www.rpbw.com/project/41/jean-marie-tjibaou-cultural-center/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Tjibaou_Cultural_Centre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlMWXksAIHk

http://www.rpbw.com/

Iroko: The timber used in the Cultural Centre is Iroko from West Africa. Research we carried out when designing the Atlantic Ocean Beach House lead us to Iroko as a potential timber for use in that project.

Web-based research at the time (pre-Wikipedia!), lead us to discover that Piano had use the same timber in his project ( for similar reasons of durability, coastal location and availability.) With little technical information available from West Africa at the time, it was useful to discuss with Piano’s local architects their experience with it. The World Wide Web indeed!  The Wikipedia link now explains all of this in more detail.

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