Centre Pompidou, Paris

The Centre Pompidou was opened in January l 977, and gained immediate fame as the most
radical modern building in Paris or, indeed, anywhere. It remains the most visited and
controversial tourist attraction in the city. And not only tourists come: it provides Parisians with
libraries, study and research facilities along with the exhibitions and views that draw the crowds.
The original concept was a cross between Times Square in New York and the British Museum:
an information centre with the emphasis on people and participation. As any visitor on any day
can see, that concept is magnificently realised. Fire eaters, jugglers and crowds of spectators in
the piazza; exhibition goers, library users and sightseers everywhere inside. Whether you like the
building or hate it, the designers succeeded in what they set out to do.
The story of the design began in I 9 71 with an architectural competition for a cultural centre in
the heart of Paris. Peter Rice and Ted Happold of Ove Arup & Partners wanted to enter, they
invited the architects Richard and Su Rogers to join them, and then Rogers brought in Renzo
Piano. They held a series of meetings to decide whether to enter, and then realised that the
meetings were spent defining the solution so they (and 680 others) entered the competition
and won.

The building is most simply described as six enormous floors, l 68m X 48m, uninterrupted by
any of the normal permanent obstructions of stairs, columns, plumbing stacks or ventilation
shafts. The floors can be divided up or not as the needs of the event or the occupier demand,
allowing an almost infinite range of possible uses. The flexibility in use is achieved by long
structural spans and by locating all the vertical circulation, toilets and mechanical seNices on the
outside edges - indeed, outside the building enclosure itself. The structural elements, which give
the building so much of its character, are the tubular trusses that span the width of the floors
and the cast steel hinged cantilevers (known as "gerberettes") that support the trusses and are
themselves supported by tubular columns and tied down by other steel tubes; the entire
structure is braced by steel rods.
The Centre Pompidou is a case study in innovation: it was the first utterly explicit architectural
statement of the structural, mechanical and circulation systems of a building, and seNed as a
prototype for many works that followed . The innovation extended to almost every aspect of the
building structure: cast steel had never before been used in this way, the fire protection and
construction systems went beyond previous experience, extensive research and testing was
needed to verify assumptions and calculations. The building marked a turning point in Peter
Rice's career, not only bringing him and his fellow designers into international prominence, but
also giving him his first large scale opportunity to explore new materials (or new applications of
old materials) - one of the themes that preoccupied him for the remainder of his career.

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"II Grande Bigo" Genoa

Genoa, Italy's most important port since medieval times, was the birthplace of Christopher
Columbus and, while the Spanish decided to mark the 500th anniversary of his discovery of
America with Expo '92 at Seville, the Genoese themselves chose to celebrate it with a slightly
more modest exposition dedicated to the sea.
Renzo Piano, himself Genoese, was chosen to design the buildings in the heart of the old port,
the project being seen as an opportunity to revitalise parts of the harbour front area which had
fallen into decay over recent years. Piano's scheme involved the renovation of some old
warehouses and a new aquarium but as a thematic centrepiece, he wanted to build a large
structure which would recall a ship's crane; it would support both the fabric membrane roof
over a public piazza and an elevator ride to provide panoramic views of the City. The old
Genoese word for a ships crane, Bigo, was adopted for the structure, for which Peter Rice and
Ove Arup & Partners were to be collaborating design engineers.
The eventual design consisted essentially of two independent sets of cable linked, cigar-shaped
booms fanning out from a small island podium located in the dock water itself. One set of
booms supports the tent roof over a harbour pier, covering the piazza, while the other set
carries a vertical cable-car passenger lift from the quayside. Both sets are anchored down to
foundations beneath the harbour water. The tent roof is supported from four tubular section
arches which are, in turn, suspended from the tips of a pair of booms through sets of cables
fanning out from a node at the end of the boom.

II Grande Bigo is another example of Peter Rice and Renzo Piano working, with their
colleagues, to explore materials and form. Again, a fabric canopy is used to provide shade and
shelter, but the more celebratory spirit of Genoa allowed a freer approach, although one
which still respects the inherent properties of the materials. Here, innovation has given place to
ingenuity, with carefully devised mechanisms such as the rocking frames and pantographs that
equalise loads and adjust geometries as these change under changing wind loads. With the
nine wind-driven, kite-like, mobiles by the Japanese sculptor Shinju, animating the scene, II
Grande Bigo neatly and joyfully captures the spirit of the revitalised port and, not surprisingly,
has already become a well known Genoa landmark.
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Menil Collection, Houston, Texas

This building for the storage and display of the Menil Collection of Art and Historic Artefacts is
unlike almost every other recent art gallery: the client wanted the exhibits to be seen by natural
light coming predominantly from above and reflecting any change in the weather and time of
day. At the same time, of course, the works of art had to be protected from direct sunlight and
harmful radiation, and the spaces themselves protected from excessive solar heat gain.
The development of the design continued the collaboration between Peter Rice and Renzo Piano
that had started with the Centre Pompidou, with the same fundamental objectives and methods
of working that had formed the basis of their close professional relationship during the previous
ten years. Rice and Piano had been experimenting with ferro-cement 1and liked it and the plastic
forms it offered, so ferro-cement became part of the original concept. Rice had also been
interested in ductile iron (cast iron with a high resistance to cracking), so he proposed this
material be incorporated as the upper steel elements of the roof structure. Thus the stage was set
for a series of steps towards the design of ferro-cement leaves, ductile iron roof trusses, and the
combination of these into shapes that would provide controlled daylighting to the gallery spaces.

The lighting conditions took precedence. Physical models of various ferro-cement baffles were
made and tested; a computer programme was written to examine variations in lighting
conditions with different baffle configurations and under different external conditions. From these
studies, an aesthetically satisfactory shape was found that met the lighting and heat gain
requirements. At the same time, work was progressing on the process of making ferro-cement, of
forming it to the correct shapes, and arriving at a method of manufacture that would be
economical and, at the same time, guarantee the quality of the finished leaves, No testing was
required for 'the ductile cast iron, a material well known in industries where it is used. The
innovation here lay in its application to building structures and its use in conjunction with
ferro-cement. Nodal clamp systems and methods of assembly were developed to produce truss
elements with a texture and shape consistent with the ferro-cement leaves.
The roof of the Menil Collection Museum exemplifies innovation achieved through an interactive
design process. It is the work of many people: the client was clear on the quality of light and
atmosphere inside the museum; tentative ideas put forward by the architects, engineers or the
manufacturers were built as prototypes and tested physically and by computer modelling;
everyone contributed to the quality of the building. It represents the way in which Peter Rice liked
to work and the way in which he worked best.
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1Layers

of fine steel mesh. impregnated with a cement rich mortar. traditionally used for boat building.

Pavilion of the Future, Expo '92, Seville

Jn I 988, Peter Rice was asked by Martorell Bohigas Mackay, architects in Barcelona, if he and
Arups would work with them on the design of the Pavilion of the Future at Expo '92, Seville.
This was to be one of the major theme buildings of the Exposition and the Committee had
asked specifically that the solution be a spectacular one. The architect's basic idea was to create
a tall, impressive facade structure that would also support the roof over the pavilion halls
behind and the canopy over the central plaza between them. The continuity of the facade was
to give unity to the Pavilion as well as creating a dramatic back screen to the gardens. Arups
were allowed a vrrtually free hand to formulate ideas for this facade structure.
In the same way that ferro-cement and ductile iron had been chosen for the roof of the Menil
Collection Museum, stone was chosen to be the structural material here. Although one of the
oldest construction materials, it was to be used in a way that reflected the technology of the
I 990's. Its natural characteristic would be recognised and, with the benefit of modern
analytical fabrication and construction methods, be exploited to create a structure very different
from the massive stone edifices of the past. The next question was the form that this facade wall
should take. At a philosophical level, the designers felt that the facade or screen should be like a
modern rtJin, comparable to a fragment of a Roman aqueduct. From the notion of the
aqueduct came the idea of a series of arches, which seemed a reasonable and logical form
particularly since the facade wall was also to support the roof of the pavilion behind it. The
concepts of form and material had been established: the challenge to the designers was to find
how to express this ancient structural form - the stone arch - in a way appropriate to the
Pavilion of the Future.

Modern stone-cutting machines are fast and accurate, capable of producing hundreds of units
in a fraction of the time it would have taken previously. This technology, combined with strong
and reliable adhesives, was exploited to create the facade's open stone units, arranged to
minimise the volume of stone while maintaining the overall geometric dimensions necessary for
the structural stability of the semi-circular arches, which span 22 .4m between twelve pairs of
stone columns, 28m high and 2. 4m apart, supporting the curved roof beams of the Pavilion
hung from the stone arches.
More perhaps even then the Centre Pompidou, Pavilion of the Future explored the frontiers of
the possible. The materials, the structural form, the methods of analysis, and the construction
techniques were all pressed to the limit it was an exercise in nerve. As Peter Rice has written,
" ... .there is nothing mysterious in the process of innovation. What is needed is just courage,
care and attention to detail, and above all belief and getting started."

The San Nicola Stadium, Bari

Bari is an industrial port located on the "Achilles tendon" of Italy, facing North into the Adriatic
Sea. It was chosen as one of the twelve venues for the l 990 World Cup Football
Championship and, for the occasion, the city decided to build a new stadium on a green field
site on its flat southern outskirts. Renzo Piano was appointed architect; Ove Arup & Partners,
led by Peter Rice, were engineers for the project. The architect's concept for the 58, 000 seat
stadium was to have an upper tier floating like a spaceship above a man made crater
containing the arena, created by building a gently sloping mound all around the stadium,
leading up to the top of a lower tier of seats. The exposed underside of the upper tier was to
be rounded and as uncluttered as possible; its flying saucer shape was to be surmounted by a
lightweight cantilevered, canopy roof to provide shade, some rain protection, and support
the floodlighting system .
From this initial concept the engineers worked alongside the architects in Renzo Piano's
Building Workshop in Genoa to develop their ideas. Arups' particular involvement was to
study the geometry of the stadium and devise a structural scheme consistent with the desired
aesthetic and compatible with the established geometry.

In the eventual design, the entire ring of the upper stand is subdivided into 26 distinct bays,
the upper parts of which are separated one from another by a slot which provides access to
the seats. Each bay thus becomes a "petal" of the upper stand structure, a feature which gives
Bari an appearance unique among stadia. Each petal is subdivided into ten radial segments,
which are concrete structural units forming part of the upper stand structure. The curved
profile given to the underside of the precast units creates a "seashell" effect to the soffit of the
upper stand structure.
Each of the 2 6 petals to the upper stand has its own independent canopy roof structure
springing from the rear edge of the stand, with an infill roof covering the open slots between
the petals. The primary supporting element to each petal's canopy is a pair of tapering,
curved, cantilevered arms constructed in high grade steel with a closed box section of variable
depth but constant width . The front tips of the cantilever arms are connected by a "U" shaped
tubular truss which accommodates an access walkway along the front edge of the roof while
also supporting the floodlighting. Spaced between the main arms are three braced tubular
arched beams over which the membrane roofing is stretched .
Like the Lord's Mound Stand, the membrane roof at Bari exploits the translucency of the fabric
whether it is seen from the inside against the blue skies of Southern Italy or from the outside at
night when the floodlighting makes the entire stadium glow like some extra-terrestrial body.

The Mound Stand, Lords Cricket Ground, London

In January I 985, the MCC held an invited competition for the design of a new stand,
replacing the Mound Stand and to be completed for the J 987 cricket season. It was to
provide public seating, debenture seating and hospitality boxes with associated bars, kitchens,
toilets and facilities for ground staff. Michael Hopkins & Partners, supported by Ove Arup &
Partners, won the competition; the most prominent feature of their design was the fabric roof
over the upper promenade on which were located the debenture seats, restaurant and bars;
it was intended to recall marquees around a village cricket ground.

Peter Rice was one of the Arup team working with Hopkins on the project. He had for some
time been interested in lightweight fabric structures and the possibilities they offered for a
range of structural forms that defined architectural space. For him, one of the most important
things about fabric was that it is normally a translucent material. The way fabric is assembled to
create the final form and one's perception of its shape (normally seen from the inside) is made
evident by the seaming which arises from the cutting patterns. The joining together of those
pieces to create the perfect surface means that the cuNature and shape of the fabric itself are
difficult to see, particularly from the outside and particularly with fabric that is bleached to a
pure white. It is the doubling up of the material at the joints, the shadows of the seams at the
points where the cutting pattern panels meet that enables the surface form to be perceived.
This means that great care must be given to the selection of cutting patterns, so that the
perception of the overall surface is consistent with and enhanced by the detailing. At the
Lord's Mound Stand, the whole of the perception of the space and the way in which the
fabric is used to create the internal ambience come from the way the patterning has been
done: radial patterns are used to create a sense of individual space underneath each of the
canopies. When seen from across the cricket ground, the roof appears more like a canopy
than a tent an effect achieved by the scalloped edge to the fabric roof, attached to catenary
boundary cables held out from the supporting masts by horizontal booms, which make the
whole thing appear to float over the spectators.