Co-designer of the Pompidou Centre will use design that ‘will last for a thousand years’ and be built of steel

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Authorities in Genoa have chosen a design by Italy’s most famous living architect, Renzo Piano, for a bridge to replace the Morandi overpass which collapsed in August, killing 43 people and injuring dozens.

Piano, 81, who is originally from Genoa, had submitted a proposal in September for the new bridge.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Italian architect Renzo Piano, right, during the presentation of Piano’s project for a new bridge, to replace the Morandi bridge. Photograph: Andrea Leoni/AFP/Getty Images

“This will last for a thousand years and will be built of steel,” he said then. It will “have elements of a boat because that is something from Genoa”, he explained, adding that it would be a streamlined and luminous white structure.

Marco Bucci, the mayor of the northern port city, said: “We have asked the architect Renzo Piano to oversee the project to ensure that the original idea is respected.”

The contract was awarded to a consortium of three Italian construction companies: Salini Impregilo, Fincantieri and Italferr.

Their proposal is based on an idea offered free of charge by Piano, whose notable works include the Pompidou Centre in Paris, along with British architect Richard Rogers, and the new Palais de Justice in the French capital.

The new bridge is estimated to cost €202m ($229m).