Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano, born in 1937, Italian architect, internationally renowned for buildings that combine inventive structural form with a highly original approach to the use of materials and that display a concern for urban context (see Architecture). Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, the son of a building contractor. He studied at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and worked with his father briefly before spending five years in the United Kingdom and the United States, where he worked in the office of influential American architect Louis Kahn. Piano gained international recognition when he and his then partner, British architect Richard Rogers, won the competition for the design of the Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris, France (1971-1977) (see Pompidou Center). The multipurpose cultural center, named after Georges Pompidou, the French president during whose administration it was commissioned, quickly became a major attraction, recognized for its exposed ducts, corridors, pipes, and other utilities, all coded in bright colors according to their respective functions.

In 1980 Piano founded a practice, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, based in Paris and in Genoa. His major works of the 1980s and early 1990s include the Menil Collection, a private museum in Houston, Texas (1981-1987); the Kansai International Airport in Ōsaka, Japan, which opened in 1994; the conversion of the former Lingotto automobile factory in Turin, Italy, into an arts and business center (1988-1994); and a number of housing and industrial projects in France and Italy.

Shortly after the reunification of Germany in 1991, Piano won a major commission to reconstruct Potsdamer Platz in the heart of Germany’s historic capital, Berlin. Potsdamer Platz had remained a wasteland ever since Allied bombing raids late in World War II (1939-1945). Piano used terra cotta and glass to give a unified look to the 18 buildings in this commercial center, which was completed in the year 2000. Construction of a 52-story transparent glass tower, designed by Piano for the New York Times, began in New York City in 2003. Piano also designed the Paul Klee Center (2005) in Bern, Switzerland; an addition to the High Museum (2005) in Atlanta, Georgia; and an expansion of the Morgan Library (2006) in New York City.

Although he is sometimes characterized as a high-tech architect, Piano’s highly individual approach reflects his affinity for fine materials and sound construction. In 1985 the French government awarded Piano membership in the Legion of Honor, and in 2000 he was made an officer of the Legion of Honor, one of the country’s highest distinctions.