It was clear to Renzo Piano from the very outset that Klee had too much depth as an artist to ever be “contained” within an ordinary building. Renzo Piano felt that the Centre planned should be dedicated to the work of a “poet of stillness”, so Piano’s ideas revolved around an essentially tranquil type of museum.

But Renzo Piano also drew inspiration from the identity of the location, the gently rolling profile of the terrain itself, for the vision of the structure he wanted to create. The fact that a motorway cut a deep and abrupt swathe along the plot’s outer perimeter did not trouble him. Rather he felt it should be incorporated into the project as a pulsing artery of our civilisation, and be reflected both aesthetically and functionally.