Renzo Piano’s vision of high-tech ‘jewel’

Renowned Italian architect presents his first outline for a new opera and national library at the Faliron Delta in southern Athens

By Dimitris Rigopoulos - Kathimerini

Very seldom do we see architects visiting the prime minister’s office at Maximos Mansion. But Renzo Piano is not just any architect, and his visit to the premier on Friday, July 18, was a reminder that in this year’s climate of political discontent there are people who still do their job well.

And so, it appears that the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s funding for a cultural center at the Faliron Delta on Athens’s Saronic coastline seems to be making progress and is proceeding without serious obstacles. (Let’s keep our fingers crossed.)

With Piano at Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’s office were Niarchos Foundation board members Philip and Spyros Niarchos and Andreas Dracopoulos. Piano did not present his plans for the new opera house and new national library, as these will be ready shortly before the end of the year.

He did provide details, though, on what he plans to do. He spoke of the Attic light, of the complex’s strategic position near the sea and the environmental aspect of the huge project which will cost 300 million euros, the entire amount being provided by the Niarchos Foundation.

Piano presented a plan showing where the buildings will be located at the Faliron Delta site. The buildings will be on the southern side, next to a large pond that will run along the length of the existing esplanade. Kallithea Municipality’s park and sports facilities will be located on the western side of the property, toward the suburb of Tzitzifies.

Piano also presented the “ideological” outline of what he is preparing for Athens with his close associate Giorgio Bianchi.

“The new opera house will be a jewel. It will not be big. It does not need to be big but it must be very good. We will be able to have joint productions with other operas, such as those of Zurich and Boston,” Piano said. “I have often worked on ideas for operas around the world. On acoustics, we work with the best in the world. In our time, it is a most demanding task to create an opera. You can’t do it on your own. You have to pool your resources with other opera houses. This one will be like a machine. I use this word because the stage will be a machine. A work might be set in space, you have to be able to create special effects. This opera will be a jewel. It won’t be anything outlandish.”

And the new library? “It will be a next-generation library. A new library for today that will be able to exchange information with the rest of the world. We will connect this library with the biggest and most famous ones in the world: from Harvard to Cambridge to Columbia universities. It will be a library with a modern concept. It will offer books but also give visitors the opportunity to print its books. The library will be a meeting point. It will work as a dynamo for education,” Piano said.

In terms of construction, work has not begun and is unlikely to do so before 2010. A few weeks ago, the last part of the club house of the old Athens horse-racing track was demolished. So far, the deadlines are being adhered to, and we have grounds to hope that this great project will be completed on time, in 2015.