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Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Ce
ntre. Nouméa, Ne w
Caledonia.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, w
i th P a ul Vincent and Alban Bensa.
Sean Irwin
New Caledonia is a French territory off t
he eastern coast of Australia. There have been turbulent moments on its' path to independence but it is now moving peacefully towards politic al aut onomy. The Agence de Développement de la Culture Kanak receiv ed the donation of a piece of land to be the site for a Cu ltural Center for the Kanak people from the municipalit y of Nouméa. They hel d a competition for the design that was won by Renzo Piano and his Building Workshop 1
The Kanak
are indigenous across the Sout h Pacific but are concentrated in New
Caledonia
2 . The site donated for the Center is on a promontory, extendi ng Southeast into the
Pacific Oc
ean (Fig. 1) 3 . The Center was named after a Ka nak nationalist murdered in their struggle for independence. The project brought a heavy burden wit h it, as Piano has written;
It was not just a tourist village th
at I had to build. I had to create a symbol: a cultural center devoted to Kanak civilization, the place that wou l d represent them to foreigners and that would pass on their memory to their grandchildren. Nothing could have been more loaded with symbolic expectations. 4
Piano took great pain
s to avoid debasing the Kanak cultural heritage or reducing his use of their forms to a pastiche, ignoring their deep r e spect for and connection with the n a tural world. On hi s web-site h e writes, "Tru e universality in architecture can be attained only through connection with the root s, gratitude for the past, and respect for the genius loci 5 . This is a n admirable sentime n t. It might strike one as being out of place as regards the Tjibaou Centre, since it follo ws a passa ge in whic h he explains his use of s u ch di verse materials as laminated wood, glas s, concrete, steel and aluminum as part of his 'quest for richness and complexit y of detail' 6 . He has stated that his form was modeled on tradition a l Kanak dwellings (Fig. 2) but there are formal si milarities to his other works and a debt to Corbusier for the diagonally cut cylinders 7
In a quote Piano refers to the sound of
the wind passing through the hollow sections of his structures as 'the voic e of the Kanak' 8 . A cynical critic might attribute such a statement to arrogance. A more charitab le one might suggest Piano was only passing on the comments of others, in a better pos ition to judge 'the voice of t he Kanak . In his commentary
Piano is c
l early trying to forestall criticism about cultural imper ialism on the one hand, and e x ploitation of indige nous cultures on the other.
Piano uses his dominant fo
rm to carry rhetorical meaning (Fig.3). In traditional
Kanak huts the center post is
a symbol for the lead er of the villag e . Pian o removed that post from his 'cas es', his term for the structures modeled after the huts, as a symbolic representation of the murder of Jean M a rie Tjibaou 9 . Western critics m i ght see this, removing the center post, as a purely formal decis ion s i nce it creates the possib ility of lar ger open spaces in the interiors of the cases. But this is im material. The symbolism would not be lost on the Kanak.
Piano's m
odifications on the archetypal 'hut' form are predicated on the assumption that technology, per se, is acultural, belonging equally to everyone 10 . This utopian sentiment is obviously untrue but architects continue to design as though it was unq uestionable, a tenet of faith. Piano's work is demonstrat ive of the level of technologic a l sophistication achieved by the most advanced nations in the worl d and has nothing to do with the genius loci . The construction techniques are so far beyond what can be accomplished in New Ca ledonia that the cases were pre- fabricated in France and assembled on-site.
The Center is arranged following the li
ne of the ridge on the promontory. Ther e are ten cases, all of different dimensions , covering a total area of 7650 m². The largest is
28 meters high, approximately
the size of a nine storey building 11 . The orientation of structures this large is c l early of critical impo rt ance. North American students should remember that the C enter is in the Southern Hemisphere, and therefore conventions for or ientation will be partially reversed. The structure as a whole must be sited to gain the great est possible advanta g e from the wind but the individual cases must also be oriented to control s unlight and solar heat gain. T he prevailing wind is from the E a st. The cases have their backs turned to it, for reasons that shall be elaborat ed later.
The Center's main axis is a series of covered
walks, gre en spaces, outdoor rooms, and gardens that connect the cases to each other and to the smaller buildings housing offices. This line is slig htly off the cardinal axis. T h e sunlight enfilades the structure, casting a continually chan ging pattern of shadows through the louvers and member s of the staves (Fig. 4). The staves are designed so that the individual pieces appear to have b e en woven to gether. The corrugated aluminum r o of, the upper r oof in a double r o of system, has been extended beyond the wa lkway s , again t o provide shade. This r o of is an element in the play of shadows.
Aluminum is reflective and Piano has
incorporated openings between t he sheets at the edges of the main volumes. The arrangem ent of the structures around the main axis also has symbolic content for the Kanak. The circulation path does not permit visitors to enter the structures from a direct approach. In traditional Kana k villages entering a hut from the front is seen as a mark of distinction, of prestige, that must be earned 12
The complex
nestles into the top of the ridge (Fig. 5). The main circulation route separates to cases from the offices and ancillary rooms. Piano has matched the greenery to this dispos ition. The cases are set amidst transplanted Norfolk Island pines that equal their height. Smaller trees are incorpor ated in the areas around the lower offices. Piano's intention to reflect the Kanak 's connection to nature is thwarted here by his selec t ion of the Norfolk pines. To us e industrial machinery to remove and replac e nine-storey trees is not indicative of a respect for the natural envi ronment. It might even be said that it is a manifestation of hubr is, antithetical to his intentions.
The average temperature
in Nouméa is 20 to 23 º C between April and Augus t and 25 to 27 º C from September t o March 13 . Shaded paths are essential for the visi tors' comfort. The main traffic arte ri es are covered but typically not enclosed. Walls would prevent air circulation and make the corridors unbear able (Fig. 6). Where the paths are open t o direct light
Piano has installed louvers. These are not
purely pragmatic. Piano has deliberately avoided monolit hic elements throughout the Cent er. He writes, "the cent er is not (and could not be) enclosed within a monumental structure." 14
Monumentalit
y through size alone would make meaningful connections to the environment impossible. By leaving the tectonics of the structures visible, and constructing them of discreet elements, a connection has been preserved despite the massive s i ze of the pieces. The play of s h adows in the Center is a deliber at e visual analogy to the passage of light through a forest canopy.
The materials used in the cons
truction of the cases are Iroko, steel, aluminum, concrete, and glass. Ir oko (
Clorophora exc
e lsa ) is native to tropical Afric a , from Sierra
Leone to Tanzania. It is very durable
and almost immune to insects, fungi, and molds. It does not r equire preservative treatments unless the color must be retai ned. Le ft untreated it will w eather to an even grey. Piano's stated hope is tha t it will we a t her until it reaches the same co lour as the bark of the palms that surround the site 15 . There is a dichotomy between Piano's attempts to re flect the Kanak's rever ence for their env ironment and his us e of an imported timber. Iroko is well s u ited for th is use but there are sev e ral nat iv e timbers that would ser v e al most as we ll and retain the references to the native ecology;
Acacia melanoxylon, Knightia ex
celsa, and
Northofagus truncata
are three examples 16
The choic
e of aluminu mquotesdbs_dbs5.pdfusesText_10
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Statesman without a State: A Reporters