(by Silvia Lambertucci) (ANSA) – ROME, DEC 19 – Close all life, “with him a whirlwind of ideas”. Renzo Piano remembers Richard Rogers and his voice, on the phone from his Paris home, almost seems to smile as he recounts a friendship “lasting more than 50 years”, a partnership of affections and thoughts, a cultural, professional and friendly exchange that has made sure that after the Beaubourg in Paris, designed together in 1971, their streets never really divided, in spite of different choices and residences, Rogers in London, Piano in Paris.
“We were bad boys together in London when there was ’68 in Paris and after all we never changed”, the senator explains kindly in a long conversation with ANSA, “Richard was four years older, few to think about now, but when you are young it’s different, for me he was always the elder brother, then I called him ‘old’ and even now, after so many years, we joked about it. big brother, the good one, like when he became Lord and a few years later I too was a senator. ” Two brothers who are citizens of the world with construction sites scattered across different continents, very frequent meetings in New York. Always with Italy in their hearts, so much so that among them, reveals the senator, they spoke Italian “because Richard was born in Italy and even though he had left as a child for London, he had parents who felt Italian, his mother was from Trieste”. Although to define the friend, Piano uses an English adjective: “for me he was elegant”, he says. A concept that in the Italian language is difficult to translate, a bit like a category of the spirit.
In fact, in Italy they often met for holidays, many of them spent together, sharing their passion for the sea and sailing with their families.
“Richard had his heart in the Mediterranean,” says Piano. That of his friend remembers the love for the Ligurian Vernazzo and the house in Tuscany “we liked it so much to find ourselves in the light of these places”. But also the continuous professional exchange. What do I like most about your project? “There are so many, very difficult to choose”, he replies, citing the Lloyd’s headquarters in London, the Madrid airport “so full of light” and also the latest work, a small art gallery in the south of France. “The fact is that we have lived the same idea of the profession, our job has always been to build public places, places for people”.
The story stops, what almost seems like a sigh escapes the phone. “It’s a big loss,” he says. Even if a friend like this is not lost, many things remain inside. On the other hand, Piano reflects, “at a certain age there is a thought that catches you: that in reality you do not really exist, you exist only as the sum of all the people you have met, of the books you have read, of what you have learned, what you have seen “.
It might sound like a sad thought, but it’s not. “Because this is basically our incredible originality” reflects the great Genoese architect, “taking and transforming, sometimes even stealing, in the good sense of the word. Here, this too was the elegance of my friend Richard. And I always behind him, at his run-up “. (HANDLE).
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Source From: Ansa
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