ON THE BUILDING SITE
To enhance the experience of the construction site as a fundamental educational element in the training of young architects, the Foundation organizes specific workshops for university students at Renzo Piano Building Workshop construction sites.
The first experience dates back to 2012, when a group of students from the Construction Engineering-Architecture degree course at the University of L’Aquila were involved in the construction site of the park’s Auditorium. In the following years, other students had the opportunity to participate in construction sites at the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation and the Paris Court, Columbia University, the Amiens University campus, and the École Normale Supérieure campus in Saclay.
WORKSHOP
2021
2018
As with the experiences at the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé and the Citadel of Amiens construction sites, this edition’s training program is part of the course entitled “De l’idée à la matière”.
In 2018, sixteen first-year Master’s students were involved, supervised by four teachers, a PhD student from ENSAP, and the RPBW team responsible for the École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay (ENS) construction site.
The experience included preliminary visits to the site, followed by the students’ accounts of their experiences, with in-depth analysis of the opportunities for discussion with the professionals working on the construction site. The final report was published in a university publication produced with the collaboration and participation of the teachers.
2016
Compared to previous construction sites, the Paris Courthouse project represented a challenge both in terms of its scale and organizational complexity.
In collaboration with architects B. Plattner and S. Marrano, who were leading the RPBW project, and ENSP Malaquais University, a customized training program was developed.
After an in-depth study of the project to understand its motivations and decision-making mechanisms, the students, supervised by university tutors and architects, focused on different aspects of the project and then wrote their final reports.
2015
University: École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais Francia
Year: 2015 – 2016
In 2016, particularly during the second academic semester, the students who actively participated in the Citadelle de Amiens construction site were involved in drafting and publishing the study report.
The book, published by ENSAParis-Malquais, is entitled “De l’idée à la matière” (From idea to matter) to emphasize the continuity of the experience with the previous work on the Pathé construction site.
2014
Construction site: Amiens,Citadel University Campus
University: École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais Francia
Year: 2014 – 2015
The workshop, which covered the entire academic year, involved 16 students from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais.
The participants took an active part in various workshops, dividing up the tasks among themselves: some worked directly on the building site, others focused on producing drawings at the RPBW office in Paris, while others collaborated with ENSAPM teachers to produce explanatory drawings relating to the project’s construction choices and interviewed the various professionals working on the construction site.
2013
Construction site: New York City, Columbia University
University: Columbia School of Architecture
Year: 2013
In September 2013, a four-month workshop was launched involving 12 students from Professor Scott Marble’s Workflow-Designing Industry – Fall 2013 course at Columbia University’s Faculty of Architecture. RPBW’s Manhattanville Campus project was selected as a case study.
The selected students attended the project presentation at RPBW’s New York headquarters and were then able to visit the construction site and talk to the engineers responsible for the structure in order to understand the process that leads from design to the creation of innovative construction products.
Construction site: Paris, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé
University: École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais Francia
Year: 2013 – 2014
Thanks to an agreement signed with the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais (ENSAPM), 15 students were able to take part in a workshop at the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathè construction site. The experience lasted two semesters, during which the students followed the construction site live, participating in meetings and documenting each phase.
At the end of this course, the students, together with their professors and RPBW architects, produced a publication entitled “De l’idée à la matière: suivi d’un chantier à Paris” (From idea to matter: following a construction site in Paris).
The positive outcome of the experience led ENSAPM to officially include the educational proposal in its training program.
2012
Construction site: L’Aquila, Auditorium del Parco
University: Università di Trento, corso di Laurea in ingegneria Edile –Architettura; Università dell’Aquila, corso di Laurea in Ingegneria Edile – Architettura
Year: 2012 – 2013
The project to build the Auditorium del Parco in L’Aquila was the first opportunity to involve students in the construction site.
During the seven months of work, the construction site was transformed into an educational laboratory for 20 students from the University of L’Aquila and two students from the University of Trento.
The former worked alongside the company during the construction, under the guidance of architect Paolo Colonna (RPBW), in order to experience firsthand the translation of the project into a built structure; the latter closely followed the production phases of certain design components, in particular those made of wood and produced in Trentino.
A special equipped space, called the ‘infopoint’, was set up for their activities, where they were able to meet both the technicians and project managers and the public in order to disseminate information about the Auditorium.
