Description
The Bigo is Renzo Piano's white crane towering over Genoa's Porto Antico: a cluster of steel masts fanned out over the water, with a panoramic lift that rises and turns above the harbour and the old town.
Its name and shape come from the bighi, the cargo derricks that once crowded the quays to move goods on and off the ships. Piano designed it for Expo 1992, which celebrated five hundred years since Columbus's voyage.
The best-loved part is the panoramic lift: a cabin for about thirty people that slowly climbs to 40 metres while making a full turn on itself. That way, nobody ends up on the wrong side of the glass.
From the top you can make out the port and its ships, the roofs and bell towers of the old town and the hills that close off the city behind. A recorded commentary in several languages and a few panels help you pick out the palaces and monuments.
The Bigo is more than a viewpoint. With their stays, its two longest arms hold up the large tensile canopy of Piazza delle Feste, a pale, luminous roof that shelters an ice rink in winter and concerts and events through the rest of the year.
The numbers explain why engineers and architects still study it: about 400 tonnes of steel and 3 kilometres of cables, with the main mast 2.3 metres wide. It all rests on a small artificial island in the middle of the basin, anchored to the seabed.
Before it was assembled, the masts were tested in a wind tunnel at the University of Bristol, to make sure they would withstand the gusts that sweep the harbour. The calculations were by Peter Rice, the engineer who had already worked with Piano on the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Piano's idea was simple: to build works for a celebration that would stay useful afterwards, once the lights of the Columbus festivities had gone out. Today the Bigo appears in the Porto Antico's logo and, together with the Aquarium and the Biosphere, it is one of the symbols of a Genoa that has found its sea again.
Its name and shape come from the bighi, the cargo derricks that once crowded the quays to move goods on and off the ships. Piano designed it for Expo 1992, which celebrated five hundred years since Columbus's voyage.
The best-loved part is the panoramic lift: a cabin for about thirty people that slowly climbs to 40 metres while making a full turn on itself. That way, nobody ends up on the wrong side of the glass.
From the top you can make out the port and its ships, the roofs and bell towers of the old town and the hills that close off the city behind. A recorded commentary in several languages and a few panels help you pick out the palaces and monuments.
The Bigo is more than a viewpoint. With their stays, its two longest arms hold up the large tensile canopy of Piazza delle Feste, a pale, luminous roof that shelters an ice rink in winter and concerts and events through the rest of the year.
The numbers explain why engineers and architects still study it: about 400 tonnes of steel and 3 kilometres of cables, with the main mast 2.3 metres wide. It all rests on a small artificial island in the middle of the basin, anchored to the seabed.
Before it was assembled, the masts were tested in a wind tunnel at the University of Bristol, to make sure they would withstand the gusts that sweep the harbour. The calculations were by Peter Rice, the engineer who had already worked with Piano on the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Piano's idea was simple: to build works for a celebration that would stay useful afterwards, once the lights of the Columbus festivities had gone out. Today the Bigo appears in the Porto Antico's logo and, together with the Aquarium and the Biosphere, it is one of the symbols of a Genoa that has found its sea again.