Main Façade Technology
Crown Princess, Regal Princess

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Crown Princess, Regal Princess

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Detail
The Focchi Research and Development Dept., together with Renzo Piano B.W. Studio, dealt with the visual aspect of the glass structures by working out the ideal shape of aluminium framework for the vertical and horizontal curved elements. The machining was done at the Focchi factory, using a specially designed machine for curving profile, extruded to F state (i.e. not hardened and tempered and thus more pliable).
The profile was then put through the necessary machining processes, including hardening, tempering and appropriate surface anodizing treatment.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW)
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW)
He was born in Genoa in 1937 into a family of builders. He graduated in 1964 from the Polytechnic of Milan. He is among the world best known and active architects i, winner of the Pritzker been delivered by U.S. President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1998. He also won other prestigious awards including: Imperial Award 1995, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2000 and the Sonning Prize in 2008. In 1971, he set up the “Piano & Rogers” office in London together with Richard Rogers, with whom he won the competition for the Centre Pompidou. From the early 1970s to the 1990s he worked with the engineer Peter Rice, sharing the Atelier Piano & Rice. In 1981 The “Renzo Piano Building Workshop” was established, with 150 staff and offices in Paris, Genoa and New York. In 1994 he won the international competition for the new Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, inaugurated in 2002. In 2004 he fulfills the Church of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. In 2006 he became the first Italian posted by TIME in the list of 100 most influential people in the world and among the ten most important in the world in the category of art and entertainment. In 2008, after nearly ten years of design and work, it’s inaugurated the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, one of the most sustainable buildings in the world for the high quality of the selected building materials.
Crown Princess, Regal Princess

Crown Princess, Regal Princess

The concept has been based upon the quest for a clearly recognisable “marine” and unified form: the dolphin metaphor represents the realisation of this idea, which is embodied in the shape of the completed ship.

Project Specs

  • Location: Trieste
  • Completed: 1988
  • Photographer: G.Basilico/ G.Berengo Gardin/ G. Crozzoli

Technology

Crown Princess, Regal Princess

Technology

An exceptional feature of this ship is the use of light alloy for the internal and external framework and for the bulwarks with glass structures on the upper decks.
These components were produced by FOCCHI SPA, who worked alongside with the design team in selecting the materials and devising the structural design. The use of this system has led to a considerable saving in the weight of the framework, with the use of aluminium instead of the traditional brass and stainless steel; in this context, as well as the glass structures and bulwarks, the dome in the observation lounge (60 m long by 30 m wide) is also made entirely from aluminium.

Designed by

Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) Architects

Live Project

Princess, the most beautiful and prestigious cruise liner in the world, is the first of twins (the sister ship is the Regal Princess), built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste for the British line P&O.

The design of the Crown Princess was developed by the Mercantile Costructions Division of Fincantieri, with the design of the external form and the upper decks by Architect Renzo Piano, giving the ship its distinctive dolphin shape. The Crown Princess takes 1680 passengers (with 650 crew), has a gross registered tonnage of 70 thousand t., a length of 245 m, and a width of 32,25 m.; the hull is 53 m. high.