Piano, Renzo

Piano, Renzo (1937- ), Italian architect who has achieved an international reputation for buildings which combine inventive structural form with a highly original approach to the use of materials and a concern for urban context.

Piano was born in Genoa, on September 14, 1937, the son of an architect. He studied at the Polytechnic in Milan and worked with his father for a year before spending five years in Britain and the United States (where he was in the office of Louis Kahn). Piano’s victory (with his then partner Richard Rogers) in the competition for the Pompidou Centre in Paris (1971) established his name on the world scene. He founded the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (a practice based in Genoa and Paris) in 1981 and was also in partnership for some years with the British engineer Peter Rice.

Piano’s major works include the Menil Museum, Houston, Texas (1981-1987), the Kansai Airport, Japan (opened 1994), and the continuing conversion of the former Lingotto car factory in Turin into an arts and business centre, as well as many housing and industrial projects in France and Italy. Though sometimes characterized as a “High-Tech” architect, Piano’s approach is highly individual and reflects his delight in the use of fine materials and sound construction.

Piano has worked on a number of other projects, including: the renovation of the Pompidou Centre, Paris; the Mixed-Use Tower Complex (1996) in Sydney, Australia; the remodelling of Potsdamer Platz (1998) in Berlin, Germany; the Nasher Sculpture Center (2003) in Dallas, Texas; and the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland, which opened in 2005. Among the many honours awarded are the Légion d’honneur in 1985, a Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1989, and the Pritzker Prize in 1998.