Benedetta Tagliabue; Elena Nedelcu; Joan Callís
The natural wonders of the world are seen as sources of inspiration, woven into the work of this architect. When Benedetta Tagliabue – Miralles Tagliabue EMBT describes their winning design for the biodiversity centre Artenoah in Germany, she recalls that during their visit to the site they observed the movement of flocks of birds as they flew over the surrounding landscape. Drawings of these murmurations, the birds’ flight patterns, became the inspirational basis for their proposal, where movement, building and landscape fused.
Making a new metro station in an eastern suburb of Paris, Tagliague describes the area as lacking identity. The new station and adjoining square are an opportunity to transform the grey and abandoned place into a colourful square, where the shapes of the pergola roof, based on the decorative patterns and colours of Africa, bring new life to the space. This pergola forms part of the Biennale Architettura, where the architect weaves meaning into repeated pattern, fusing handcraft with architecture, the personal and the general.
There is something in Tagliabue’s work that brings to mind the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska in her poem Psalm:
How leaky are all the borders, we draw around our separate nations! How many clouds cross these boundaries daily, without even paying the toll!
YF+SMcN