The Kanak Center is situated in the city of New Caledonia at the eastern coast of Australia. (Blaser,1998) The project task was to create symbolic language to devote to the Kanak people and their civilization. (Blaser, 1998) This project shows how Piano makes space for people as he emphasized its social purpose for people, including the Kanak people, their future generation and the visitors and his response to this specific program with its strong cultural context with the tropical environment; how he evokes the beauty and spiritual quality within his architecture to what he tried to pursue, and how he synthetically considered the environment, structure, material and culture with various strategies. Moreover, this project also highlights how he experimented and tested out his designs “piece by piece” through his design process.

In terms of the site, the Kanak Center is situated on a small promontory and is integrated into the natural line of the ridge with both façades facing towards the sea. (Anatxu, 1998) The total building area is 7650 square meters (over 82,000 square feet) and is distributed into ten hut pavilions, lined up side by side with diversity of dimensions and functions, and the highest one is 28 meters. (Anatxu, 1998) Those theme spaces were categorized into three zones and like three smaller villages with different uses and purposes: Zone 1: a permanent exhibition, temporary exhibition space, an auditorium and an open-air amphitheater; Zone 2: research space, a conference room and a library; Zone 3: activity spaces for dance, music, sculpture and painting. (Sean, 2013) 

Piano purposely abandoned the idea of the monolithic structure as he wrote that “the center is not and could not be enclosed within a monumental structure,” and utilized the site to reflect Kanak culture, emphasizing on spatial sensitivity and interaction with nature. (Piano, 2000) One of the reasons for arranging those pavilions in a row spread out on the promontory was to set out the volumes like houses in a traditional village layout to reflect the local culture. (Hockney, 2018) The curve axis is comprised of the main covered but not enclosed circulation pathway, office spaces and other indoor functional spaces, and is punctuated by in-between space which are communal garden spaces and outdoor spaces with the views towards nature. This pathway also connects the pavilions to each other, so that this series of open and enclosed spaces create a continued conversation with the nature and the ocean. (Sean, 2013) This arrangement makes the entrance of each pavilion located between this axis pathway and the edges of each volume; however, this is also a consideration from the symbolic custom in local culture. (Anatxu, 1998)  In traditional Kannak culture, only people with high reputation or social status can enter the structures from front entrance directly because of this cultural consideration. The circulation walkway was designed with the indirect approach from this axis corridor to the individual volume. (Anatxu, 1998)

The orientation of the complex is crucial and has been considered a lot in this site, and it also determined the layout of the volume. This is because one of the tasks for Piano was to utilize the site and local climate to reflect the close relationship between the Kanak and nature. (Anatxu, 1998) Therefore, Piano designed the pavilion to face the ocean, where the prevailing winds comes from the east, allowing the wind to be channeled through the louvers into the indoor space and in-between spaces of those volumes to ensure the comfort. (Anatxu, 1998) However, there are two layouts to achieve the village arrangement: one is a peripheral layout that houses have a center communal space, and the second one is the linear arrangement where all the houses face the geographic importance like a river with the same orientation. (Sean, 2013)The initial design was based on the peripheral layout, but after Piano tested it out, it didn’t work for his natural ventilation strategy unless he orientated each of them to the prevailing wind for his environmental control system, so he chose the layout that the volumes arranged along the main pathway. (Sean, 2013)

The construction and form of the huts are the expressions of how the Kanak people lived harmoniously with nature. (Anatxu, 1998) So, in terms of the structure, Piano wanted to respect and reflect the Kanak civilization within his structure strategy. Piano provided the visual link based not only on aesthetics, but also on functionality in which the structural form related to environmental strategies, as he wrote: “so the continuity of the village in time is not based on the duration of the individual building, but on the preservation of a topology and a scheme of construction.” (Piano, 1997) Piano took the dynamic and essential construction element of local construction together with modern language, but avoided imitative pastiche and overly literal references. (Sean, 2013; Piano, 1997)

The visual, dominant feature of the complex is the structural form which links the project together. The structure is comprised of the giant curve wooden struts and steel connections and they are visually integrated. The contouring of those vertical ribs allows for the transition between the vertical and horizontal elements, as well as the curve and straight elements in which all the structural elements are connected to those main struts as they are anchored in the concrete foundation. (Sean, 2013) The material of the structs is iroko, a material from Africa that has been used for both laminated construction with galvanized steel panels and as staves in the thin layer of cladding. (Blaser, 1998) Iroko is structurally very strong and durable, and is immune to molds and insects without preservative treatments. (Sean, 2013) Therefore, the wooden struts that form the curve structure can shed the wind and bear the load well in this site context. (Anatxu, 1998) The double skin structure system contains the outer struts with installed louvers and the inner struts have window protection and also for regulating the light, and created this unique and unified structural language. This structure is like clothing that provides protection from nature but doesn’t lose the intimacy with nature; the louvers and windows also control the comport and regulate how people feel and sense the space. This is unlike the conventional way that the structure been hidden into the façade or to have some kind of indication about the structure from the outside through façade decoration details. 

Although this language is part of the local structure, but Piano utilized this character to emphasize on the volume of the space, and to keep this unified rhythm to ensure the interaction with nature. Moreover, the internal space exposes the inner struts and the structure elements with some have been paneled on for functional use, but even the internal wood paneling walls indicated the horizontal and vertical structural elements that are behind. Piano left all the tectonic structure visible so that people can easily understand visually from outside and inside how the building stands up. Various dimensions of structure elements were carefully joined and showed in contrast with the massive size of the volumes. The clarity of layered structure provides this logic of how different loads transfer to each structural element and feel the tension or compression between them. Every structural part is essential with the necessity of its being there. (Shingu, 2018)

The achievement of the structural elegance and clarity can be reflected on the scale models of the pavilion for this project which is exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts. It clearly shows how this complex structure been joined together, and the relationship between each structural element, as well as the scale of each structural component. This is always the Piano working method in design process to build a scale model and to develop ideas of form and rhythm, and to give deeper understanding about engineering, proportion and human scale. As Piano said, “Sometimes the individual piece is so small and is produced so many times that is becomes an organism and yet it is still recognizable, this clever ways avoids the obstacles posed by real scale in the environment,” and “the only two ways of avoiding errors are: investigate the component parts and build a mental hologram.” (Piano, p105) 

In terms of environment, it can certainly be argued that the design of the Kanak culture is shaped and influenced by both the natural environment and the cultural environment, and they are also related since the Kanak’s culture and spirit is intimately linked to the natural environment. In terms of the cultural environment, the task of this project is to create a symbol that evoked the Kanak culture and its roots to both the public and their future generations. (Anatxu, 1998) Therefore, Piano utilized some of the traditional construction features and custom into the form, the general layout, the spatial arrangement and the use of material to create this cultural linkage. For example, the great slope of the roof which became the wall in the local structure to ensure the rainwater quickly drain into the earth from the roof, is also for reducing the heat gain and the curve shape to reduce the load on the structure from the wind. (Anatxu, 1998) He used these features as part of environment strategies, but he also did some modification to suit the function for modern public use of the building and for rationality use of the material. For instance, in tradition Kanak structures, the skin of the building is weaved into the structure by the grass and the rattan, so Piano used the wooden louvers instead, but still operated with the same environmental concern to regulate the light and wind through the internal space.

The diagonally cut cylinders form to ensure there is sufficient light and heat gain coming into the space and the work was integrated with the roof system to keep the spaces cool and fresh. (Guthrie, 2018) The double roof system was a dominant environmental strategy for natural ventilation and by providing this smart environmental control system to cope with the change of local temperature and weather in a sustainable way. The louvres were installed from the bottom of both the outer and inner walls, and based on the current speed of wind, the two layers of louvers are opened and closed by a computer. (Anatxu, 1998) This strategy had been tested by the scaled model to determine the accuracy of the idea and to make it convince for the client as well. Here is the quote from Alistair Guthrie, who is Piano’s colleague and was working on this project, “the client was unsure that this wind-driven comfort control would be sufficient in the climate, but with extensive hour by hour analysis of the weather and its interaction with the building we proved that it would be comfortable for 95% of the hottest month of the year, which alleviated their concerns.” (Guthrie,2018)

The fascinating aspect of this environmental strategy with this structure is that people can actually hear the wind passing through the opening space at the top of the pavilion and it produces a special whistling sound. (Guthrie,2018) This way, people can actually imagine how the invisible wind interacts with the structure themselves, and to hear, quoting from Piano, “the voice of the Kanak.” (Piano, 1998) Clearly, Piano pursued this building with those sensory and imagined experiences as part of his architectural language, just as his architect friend Susumu Shingu remembered that Piano had asked him: “Can you make the invisible air visible?” (Shingu, 2018) Visually, the Kanak center is well blended into the site by the form and the layout, but also by the horizontal and vertical wooden structural elements. The gradient density of the louver like the surrounding trees with less visibility near the bottom and there is more visibility at the top with more light passing through, together with the anchoring system make the wooden structure feel like its naturally growing out of the ground. People can see the sketches and the section in the exhibition that Piano drew the pines tree by horizontal lines as well, to emphasize that the structure visually has this surrounding reference. 

This also characterize the materiality of the building complex. The nine-story height pine trees and the vertical structural elements make people feel that part of the structures are blended in and integrated with the nature. (Guthrie,2018) The use of wood, the proportion of the structure, the light reflection on the volumes and the gradient density of the louvres make the feeling of the structure relatively light and look like it’s almost disappearing to the sky and blending in with the trees. This open-structure system from both inside and outside offer a breathable and lively perception like a living organism. For the internal space, the light and shade which is cast by the louvers and natural light makes the space lively and more dynamic, and even makes the space lighter in contrast with the conventional walls. This lightness can be seen from the models and the sketches and can achieved by various methods. This sensation of lightness with the connection with sky and the horizon can be found throughout his design and build which is ensured by the processes his making. (Rogers, 2018)