City Talks: Inside Piano

Overview

The New Zealand Institute of Architects is a professional body representing more than ninety percent of all registered architects in New Zealand, which both supports its members with relevant services and promotes and celebrates exceptional architecture in New Zealand. It seeks to generate greater awareness of the values and benefits that architecture brings to constructed environments now and in years to come. The New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington Branch has developed City Talks, an ongoing initiative presented in partnership with City Gallery Wellington.

The intention of the series is to generate dialogue surrounding contemporary architecture and urban issues. The series aims to foster dialogue around contemporary architecture and urban issues. The second event in the series is an introduction of 'Inside Piano' by Wellington-based architect Chris Kelly.

'Inside Piano' is part of a series titled Living Architects developed by French filmmakers Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, which seeks to revolutionise the way in which we look as architecture, departing from the current trend of idealising the representation of architectural heritage. 'Inside Piano' comprises of three short films centred around three symbolic buildings by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Instead of focusing on explaining the technicalities of the building, the films present a humorous, caustic and quirky point of view of everyday life in Renzo Piano buildings. They utilise a series of moments and fragments of life to allow the viewer to enter the invisible sphere of the daily intimacy of some iconic contemporary architecture.

Kelly founded ideas-driven practice the Architecture Workshop in 1992 after studying at the Frankfurt Stadelschule and spending six years working with renowned architects included Denys Lasdun and Ian Ritchie. He also has an ongoing, close working relationship with Renzo Piano, and his practice, now involved in a variety of architecture, landscape, and urban design projects throughout New Zealand and the recipient of several awards, seeks to reflect the focus on process and construction which he admires in Piano's approach.