Tjibaou Cultural Centre

The land for the centre was donated to the Kanak Cultural Agency (ADCK) by the municipality of Noumea.

The site is a thin peninsula protruding south into a lagoon. This site is important in Kanak history, as it was here that Tjibaou held the Melanesia 2000 festival in 1975, one of the key moments in the struggle for cultural and political recognition by France.

the new cultural centre at Noumea in New Caledonia. The JM Tjibaou Cultural Centre is named after Jean Marie Tjibaou, who lead the New Caledonian Independence Movement.

Although Tjibaou died in 1989, it had already been decided that a cultural centre would be built for the Kanak people in honour of Jean Marie Tjibaou.

A competition was held to design and build the centre. The winning design was by Renzo Piano and with the help from the Kanak people, the widowed Marie-Claude Tjibaou and structural engineers Ove Arup and Partners, his original design was refined to what we see here today. It was a successful and satisfying combination of traditional beliefs and habits and modern technology. The aim of the project was to give the Kanak people a place to learn and appreciate their history, but not to be stagnated by it.

To look to future as a world where both their traditional world and the modern world can simultaneously grow with each other. Here we see some of Piano’s initial drawings and sketches of traditional huts. In the photo a resemblance can be made between the traditional hut and the forms used in Piano’s design.

Piano drew inspiration from traditional Kanak culture and from the surrounding environment. He took from them the idea of the clustered village. In plan and elevation the centre is arranged in clusters of three groups of three.

The first group focussing on the Kanak historical and environmental exhibitions, the second housing administration and the third being dance, music and graphic studios.

In Kanak culture it is believed that the most respectable route to anothers house is often indirect. therefore an indirect approach to the centre was provided by Piano.

The entrance is located tangentially to the main corridor/path behind the hut-like structures, compared to a more direct, linear approach.

As one enters, the clustered village effect is concreted by the simple arcing path, which connects each group of hut structures to one another.

Like a journey through a village there are distances between each hut, allowing the surroundings to be taken in, as well as allowing time for contemplation until the next hut is reached.

A feeling of departing one group and arriving at another, further portrays the changes and evolution of the Kanak people.

As mentioned earlier Piano does draw inspiration from the traditional conical houses of the Kanak people. Originally Piano’s hut structures came together at the top.

Piano decided that greater ventilation would be achieved if they were open at the top, as well a lesser resemblance to the traditional conical hut would be achieved.

Piano also uses a ribbed structure similar to that used in the construction of the traditional huts. Instead of using small palm saplings, Piano’s interpretation is of a much greater scale - having to withstand cyclonic winds, and to be structurally stable for the height that the structures reach, up to 28m.

Central to the aims of the project was a building that would be ecologically integrated with its site. Therefore boundaries between the building and its context were blurred.

Whilst the structure needed to be magnificent to embody the dreams and memories of past, present and future generations, it could not be an imposing structure. This constraint lead to the design of forms and structures which create magnificent transparent silhouettes, and rather than being about the spaces they enclose they are light and semi-transparent with an emphasis on the spaces they infer and open up.

The combination of traditional and modern building materials is also seen here. The flat roof of steel and glass is supported by iroko timber columns.

Inside Piano opens up parts of the journey to the outside. There is an intended blurring of building and site as seen here, with the louvred wall and this semi-enclosed courtyard.

A combination of timber and stainless steel make up the structures. a joint connection detail and in plan a section of the double skinned ribbed structure is there in next slide. Each curved outer rib is linked to a straight vertical one, which forms part of the structure of the perimeter of the enclosed space. The curved ribs carry horizontal slats which have some effect on modifying the effects of the high winds.

The forms are made of laminated iroko, structurally linked by horizontal tubes and diagonal rod ties of stainless steel. The iroko timber is West African chosen for its incredible strength, its natural oils which act as a protection against termites and weathering and its hue which blends with its natural surroundings. Piano’s intention is that the iroko timber will weather to the same pale silver grey as the trunks of the palm trees, without rotting.

Ventilation was also an important consideration in Piano’s design. The natural ventilation is a passive system which uses the always present trade winds to draw out the stale air within the centre providing constant circulation if desired. The hut like structures have a double skin which provides the natural circulation and cooling.

Internal conditions are controlled by louvres which can be manually manipulated to achieve different conditions or to protect against cyclonic winds. The diagrams demonstrate typical internal conditions. When the hut structure is closed off from the corridor; when it is open to the corridor and rest of the centre providing maximum circulation; and also during cyclonic winds, where the entire structure is closed off and protected.

The photo shows the two lots of louvres at the top and bottom, which allows the air to circulate from outside to inside and then out again.

The wind through the wooden slats can sometimes create sounds that howl and echo through the centre. For the Kanak people, “the wind surging through the slats gives the huts a voice; being that of the Kanak villages and their forests.”

Name : Deepika gulati

College : university school of architecture and planning

Roll no : 29

2nd year

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