The Menil Collection is located in Houston, Texas, and was constructed in 1982-86. It was built to house the collection of Dominique Menil. This collection contains more than 10,000 works of primatve and modern art. Mme. de Menil had firm ideas about what she wanted from the museum - she wanted it to be an experimental musuem, one that would function simultaneously as a restoration center, exhibition site and village. She wanted nothing to do with the rhetorical modernity of downtown Houston.
Mme. de Menil had a great love for light, and wanted the light in her museum to be bright, throbbing, as variable as the day - so as to permit ever changing perceptions of the colours in the works.
Light presents an immediate problem where art-works are concerned, as more light damages the works. The large number of works also proved to be a probelem - how could so many artworks be displayed effectively. The solution to both these problems came in the form of the treasure house, a secure area with climate control where paintings were stored. Paintings would be brought out for display for a certain period of time, and then returned to the treasure house. This meant that the levels of light could be higher than normal in a gallery, since the art-works would only be in there for a set period of time.
Any light which did enter the gallery would have to be diffused, as no direct light can fall on paintings. The solution came in the roof - which is made up of the repetition of a modular element. Named a "leaf" by Piano's team, each unit is made from a thin section of reinforced concrete integrated with a steel lattice girder. Light bounces through these units, creating a bright interior without any direct sunlight.
