“Gli ingegneri degli architetti” : dal gruppo Structures3 al sodalizio tra Ove Arup&Partners e Renzo Piano (1971-1981)

At the beginning of 1971, engineer Peter Rice (1935-1992), in his early thirties and fresh from his experience building of the Sidney Opera House, works within the Structures3 group under the direction of Ted Happold (1930-1996), an associate of Ove Arup & Partners in London, dedicating himself to the construction of tensile structures and textile roofs, often designed with Frei Otto (1925-2005). It was the latter who, through his acquaintance with architect Richard Rogers (1933-2021), contributed to the birth of a strong and lasting partnership that would lead to the realisation of some of Renzo Piano’s most significant works. Among them, the Beaubourg (1971-1977) is a concrete example of the complex and necessary integration of engineering into the design, testifying to a successful understanding of the different roles and requirements throughout the design process. Peter Rice and Ted Happold, in spite of their apparent secondary role, as recalled by the definition of “the architects’ engineers” often used to identify them, they stood out as professional figures capable of understanding the requirements of the Piano and Rogers designers in their entirety and with full respect. If, in the experience of the Beaubourg, the Ove Arup company cannot be considered as a protagonist on a par with the Piano&Rogers studio during the competition phase, from the executive project onwards it claims the centrality of the engineering component. Peter Rice bypasses the intentions of the government, which had planned to entrust the execution of the work to French personalities, and argues for the use of steel casting, a practice considered by the Parisian industry to be alien to modernity in 1971. The proposed intervention aims to investigate the professional collaboration that has been established between these two entities, one of an engineering nature and the other of an architectural nature, initiated in the 1970s and continuing to the present day, with a particular focus on the ten years following the announcement of the competition for the Centre Pompidou.