Renzo Piano - Centre Kanak: Kulturzentrum Der Kanak/Cultural Center of the Kanak People

The cultural centre in Noumea - unquestionably one of the Pritzker prize winner Renzo Piano's finest works. From 1993-1998 Italian architect Renzo Piano built a new cultural centre in Noumea, New Caledonia to commemorate the forthcoming independence of the Pacific island. Beginning with a round wooden building, a traditional feature of Kanak culture, Piano went on to develop and create a structure which blends the memory of Melanesian culture with modern techiques from the West in a visually stunning way. Piano's wooden shell structures and state-of-the-art technology is a dramatic contrast to the blossoming island landscape. With his expressive duotone photographs, Werner Blaser captures the essence of this extraordinary building from outside and from within.