Recreating Renzo Piano’s masterpiece in Sketchup + Enscape

This project aims to recreate in an accurate 3D model the Menil Collection building by Renzo Piano, starting from a basis of 2D jpg floor plans and multiple pictures of the site as visual references.

The 3D files of the whole project are available here : Menil Collection models

-> See related post :

10 Practical architecture lessons from the Menil Collection model

Why the Menil Collection ?

This museum has been one of my favorite cultural buildings since always perhaps because it speaks to me either as both elegantly simple and simply elegant.

There is something about Renzo Piano’s work that I will always aspire to as an architect, that is how we makes simplicity look this beautiful without ever looking cheap.

I recently decided to start a study program on the theme of cultural buildings, and that was the first reference I thought of. In terms of scale and program it was perfect to dive into. I’m not going to recap the history and common description of this project since you’ll probably already know about it, if you found your way here. There’s alrealdy plenty of web sources for that.

Recreating a project from 1987 

The best and only way for me to really understand the project was for me to try to recreate it entirely (well, as far as I could go). This was also the opportunity to take this time to build 3D modeling skills along the way, in this case improving in Sketchup and Enscape.

There always was an occasion to learn how to model something new within the building, learn a new tool to use, how to do it more quickly, more efficiently. The structural elements over the leaves are a good example of that. 

The iconic roof structure

I especially wanted to understand how was made the light system structure, the one that makes the project so recognizable and strong at the same time. It was for me the hardest part of the modeling.

The individual elements of this structure were the most difficult ones to make in the entire building, not only the semi organic shape they present, but also the way they lock into each other.

This required very high precision to make the leaves and their support work with the triangle truss that goes perpendicular to the leaves. Precision level had to be around .01 centimeter to get this right across the whole building.

But looking into the details of these structural pieces is a good way to better understand how the pieces lock into each other, in a basic mecanic way that is.

Optimized structural triangles are connected to the cement leaves from above. They are locked with each other in a row that meets another triangle shaped truss coming at 90°. Every connection is basically made through nuts and bolts.

Also, the way the iron roof strcuture is made with the gutters intersecting and the glass panels leaning on them, is really an ingenious rainwater evacuation system, one that is both aesthetic and practical.

Menil Collection Structure detail module 3d files available for free here

Glass panels over the iron structure

Over all this, small glass panels are held by small iron rods in a very light manner, giving the impression of a aerial membrane gently floating over the heavy ciment leaves. This is hardly seeable from down below, but in a 3d model you can see what you want to see :

Art Galleries for exhibitions

Then I wanted to learn more about how the space was constructed overall, looking from above, how the interior galleries were connected, how the visitors flowed through the building, experience the quality of both interior and exterior spaces.

Reading the Floor plans of the Menil Collection and getting the measures right

I realized that the floor distribution was very easy to read on a plan, because it was rigorously following a framework. Once this framework was understood it was very easy to plan the recreation of the building, piece by piece, step by step.

First, the plan (old jpg, good resolution) had to be redrawn using Autocad, align tool and a lot of layers not to get to confused later. The 2D CAD files were an absolute minimum before going into 3D modeling. The ground floor looked like that once the references jpegs were traced properly :

The rational organization of space in and out of the building seemed easy to apprehend from there : a wide grid of rectangles 11,80 m by 5,90m ruling the entire building, posts in every interesections.

Then, you keep going kind of the same way you plan for its construction : starting from the foundations, the structural system, the exterior composition, then the interior distribution, finally the decorum and population. 

Eyeballing a masterpiece : the last resort to model in 3D

Most of the recreation part started with finding and analyzing photos, luckily there are tons of them, before drawing and testing in 3D. Since there was no digital reproduction of this building available (there is now), everything had to be eyeballed using plans, sections, drawings, google street, pictures. 

Menil Collection Exterior Structure sample : 3d files here

Conclusion

The most interesting lesson from this relatively small museum project relies in the basic principle of filtering light through leaves of cement on the ceiling. However, if the complexity of the structure behind those leaves is hidden to the eye, it is essential for the project to work. The structural design of the leaves and the truss that holds it above the ground is kind of the secret artwork in the museum.

After weeks of effort and trial and error phases, I was able to come up with a pretty accurate depiction and understanding of the Menil Collection Project. Although it’s looking brand new, it took both visual references and instinctive guesses from 2D to 3D.

The whole modeling process gave me a lot of measure references for different kinds of spaces (for exhibitions for instance) and different building parts, that will surely help me in the future to assess what is doable, what is not, and the quality of the space that goes along.

Menil Collection Entire building : 3d files here

Once you start to build it, even if it is just in a 3d model, it feels like you’re the construction company that has to make this work. That’s when you’ll face a lot of questions. Finding answers to those questions is a great experience that could be useful for any future project. Doing it in a building that was always an inspiration was even more exciting and fulfilling, almost like you were there with the project team when it was built.

These are some captures of the final file of the entire building file in Sketchup. I didn’t go as far as the basement (my enthusiasm on this project ran a little thin in the end).

The upside of working in Sketchup is the ability to extract 2D renders that are vectorial that can be easily read on Autocad or Illustrator after. For any axonometric view, section cut or floor plan coming straight out of the 3D model.

Epilogue

All was left to do was trying to fill out the building with art, which I did in a modular mini version of it, that I called the Mini Menil Art Gallery.

It required a little of experimentation on paper about the global organization of the scenography, chossing the type of artworks that I wanted to show, and adjusting all the spotlights to properly illuminate all of them. Starting real ugly :

After a lot of tweaking and efforts, the final results came out like this :

Mini Menil Art Gallery with template exhibitions : 3d files here

More comfortably watchable in a walkthrough video I made out of Enscape (real quick for animation renders thank god) from my sketchup file, then edited together.

I have synthetized a few practical architectural lessons I learned from the 3d modeling of this building -which was kind of exhausting in the end. The instructive part of modeling really came strong in this one.

On to the next one, now.