Renzo Piano- The Shard
The Shard located in London, UK is a monumental piece of architecture. A design by Piano that almost tears the sky, also known as the London Bridge Tower, it is a 72-story, mixed-use tower located on the south bank of the River Thames. It looks like something from a movie set decades in the future and really displays how deep an architects creativity can go.
Renzo Piano-Citadel University Campus
Located in Amiens, France the Citadel University Campus converted its 17th-century citadel into a new campus for the Université de Picardie Jules-Verne. Designed by Piano to revitalize the town I also think that it serves to modernize the town and campus. It is also a design I wouldn’t mind being implemented into some of our new buildings on campus in Norman.
Renzo Piano-DIOGENE
The Diogene is a minimalist, single occupancy housing unit, fully contained and independent of its environment. Self-contained, it is described by Piano as ‘designed not as emergency housing but as a ‘voluntary place of retreat’. But honestly it is a cool well designed residence that has no negative impact on the environment, making it a more sustainable way of living as an alternative.
Renzo Piano-LARVOTTO REGENERATION PROJECT
The Larvotto Regeneration Project is a series of ‘floating’ seaside residences for a new eco-district in Monaco. This is a very unique piece or architecture that evokes a sense of magic. It’s almost as if Piano captured a glimpse of Atlantis within these residences. It is definitely a place I’d like to visit in the future and really get to enjoy the details.
This building is, what was formerly a Buick dealership in Automobile Alley in okc, and presently the restaurant Red PrimeSteak. This building along with the vast majority in this area have been repurposed into more modern practices. This is my current job as a host and waiter, and has allowed me to meet many different people. It is a very popular steakhouse that many traveling professional athletes and celebrities frequent in the city. This building to me represents a cultural shift and yet a look into a vintage building that always excites me to enter.
The building pictured here is the combination of The Headington and Dunham residential colleges here at the university of Oklahoma. This building is important to be because it was where I first worked when I started OU. I worked in the dining halls in food services. There I made a lot of friends and met a lot of great people, so this building represents that positivity I experienced while I worked there. It affected me by providing a place to eat, work and study with my friends.
In this post, my building of choice was the aftermath of a tornado that destroyed my childhood elementary school. Plaza Towers elementary school was destroyed in the Moore tornado 2013, the meaning of the building before it was destroyed was my school I attended on a daily basis with my friends but afterwards it was the place of tragedy. It took a total of 10 lives and injured more and its has impacted me by reminding me how fragile life really can be and unpredictable.
A building that has a lot of significance to me is my high school Edmond Santa Fe. It had definitely influenced me in a positive way, despite how I may have felt while attending. But all jokes aside When I first encountered this building I was a 16 year old in his sophomore year of high school. it had initially seemed a lot larger that it was looking back, but it had a repetitive design. There were squeaky rubber tiled floors, as well as rough short carpet. When thinking back to that experience there is a feeling of comfort because that was a place I would spend the majority of my time I grew quite accustomed to it. There is a deep nostalgia when I reminisce about it, walking there from my neighborhood and seeing the football stadium in the distance was always a sigh of relief. Now, being a college junior, I go home occasionally and see my old school and the additions they have made to it in astonishment. I believe that I will always get this feeling because of all the memories that building holds personally.
