Piano, Renzo

Related Category: Architecture: Biographies

(rĕnt´sō pyä´nō), 1937–, Italian architect, b. Genoa. Piano attended architecture school at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1964. He worked with architects Louis I. Kahn and Z. S. Makowsky from 1965 to 1970. Piano came to worldwide attention when he and Richard Rogers designed the Pompidou Centre (popularly known as the Beaubourg) in Paris. A new concept in museums, it is an “urban machine” that reveals its engineering basis by having brightly colored pipes, escalators, and other service elements on the outside of the structure. The prolific Piano has been lauded for responding to the needs of each building site rather than cleaving to a single architectural style and has also been praised for his command of engineering technology. His other buildings include the Menil Museum, Houston (1981–6), known particularly for its leaflike ferroconcrete louvers that filter the light from its transparent roof; the vast Kansai Air Terminal, Osaka (1994); the long, low, and elegantly simple Beyeler Foundation museum, Riehen, Switzerland (1997); and the Tjibaou Cultural Center, Nouméa, New Caledonia (1998), featuring wooden staves reminiscent of local Kanak huts. His 21st-century projects include the naturally illuminated Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Tex. (2003); the innovative Padre Pio Church, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy (2004); the undulating Paul Klee Center, Bern, Switzerland (2005); and the light-filled addition to the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City (2006). In recognition of his achievements, Piano was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1998.

See his On Tour with Renzo Piano (2004); P. Buchanan, Renzo Piano Building Workshop (4 vol., 1999–2003); studies by A. Cuito, ed. (1989) and P. Jodidio (2005).