Pinacoteca at Lingotto
Lingotto, Turin, Italy
Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Renzo Piano Building Workshop brings a consummate craftsmanship to the creation of a small museum in the Lingotto factory

By Niccola di Paderno and Suzanne Stephens

© Enrico Cano

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Atop the historic and enormous former Fiat factory at Lingotto in Turin, Italy, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli protrudes visibly above the city. Or at least part of it does. A new, 400-ton structure, dubbed "Scrigno," or treasure chest, appears to levitate over Lingotto’s rooftop track for testing cars.

Resting on four steel columns, the steel-clad Scrigno appears at once massive and light. But it forms only the tip of the iceberg of the entire Pinacoteca designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop: The remainder is contained on four floors of one section of the 2-million-square-foot factory under the rooftop track.

The Pinacoteca constitutes the third phase of Piano’s 14-year renovation of the factory, designed by Matté Trucco in 1917, into a mixed-use center with a hotel, shops, and conference space. Since Fiat mogul Gianni Agnelli and his wife, Marella, were donating the permanent collection to the museum, which is run by the Palazzo Grassi of Venice (supported with Fiat money), they were very much involved in the design. Clearly, Piano’s previous work at Lingotto gave him an edge as the architect of choice. The Agnellis nevertheless were doubly committed to the architect after a visit to his Beyeler Museum in Basel. Over the next three years, and what Piano has noted were "endless discussions" with the clients, came the forceful, yet elegant result. "Gianni wanted to know the diameter of every bolt," Piano remarks. "A good client-architect relationship is not really about money. It’s about understanding."

The program called for a total of 35,000 square feet, of which 4,300 square feet would be devoted to the exhibition of a permanent collection of 25 artworks formerly owned by the Agnellis, by masters ranging from Tiepolo to Manet, Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso. In addition, the Pinacoteca would provide 12,910 square feet on two floors for changing exhibitions, 5,900 square feet for educational activities, plus 5,900 square feet for meeting rooms, and 3,600 square feet for a bookshop.

Upon arriving at the Lingotto, visitors first encounter a lively shopping and restaurant area. Then, turning into a corridor leading to the Pinacoteca, the atmosphere becomes quieter and more serene. A dedicated elevator takes visitors up to the main entrance on the rooftop test track, where it is possible to walk around the exterior of the Scrigno and to admire the "Bolla," a spherical glass conference center designed by Piano in 1994.

By separating the permanent collection from the rest of the Pinacoteca, Piano and his team, headed by Maurits van der Staay, were able to give the permanent collection a unique identity. The Scrigno, which is the permanent gallery, looks almost like an abstracted bird of steel perched on four legs atop the roof. Enclosed by a half-inch-thick steel-sheet skin, the Scrigno is topped by a cantilevered roof that seems to float over the space.

The roof, nicknamed the "flying carpet," is composed of four layers of steel profiles under which are 1,600 glass fins. This canopy is attached by steel struts to the walls of the gallery and sits about 4 feet above the gallery’s own translucent roof.

In the lower roof, glass sits atop layers of movable aluminum slats, 10-foot-long white neon tubes, and, finally, a vellum sunscreen made of "Trevira," a synthetic fiber tissue. Additional spotlighting reinforces the mix of artificial light and daylight, so that the paintings and statues are bathed in a luminous glow. The 20-foot-high gallery, divided by 9-foot-high freestanding partitions, is sparely designed with off-white gypsum-board walls and oak floors, and stainless-steel details.

Below, in the reinforced-concrete structure of the factory, a suspended stair of painted steel, wood, and glass links the temporary galleries and other spaces. In these galleries there is no natural top lighting: Daylight is admitted through existing windows and supplemented by spotlighting.

Formal name of Project:
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

Location:
Lingotto , Turin , Italy

Gross square footage:
35,000 sq ft

Clients:
Lingotto & Palazzo Grassi

Architect:
Renzo Piano Building Workshop
34, rue des Archives 75004
Paris France
tel: +33 1 44 61 49 00,
fax: +33 1 42 78 01 98
E-mail: rpbw@rpbw.com
www rpbw.com