RENZO PIANO

Born in Genoa in 1937, Renzo Piano while studying architecture at the Polytechnic of Milan, worked with Franco Albini. The projects of his father, who was an architect as well, were a very important source of experience for him. Piano completed his training with trips to Great Britain and the USA between 1965 and 1970. In 1971 he founded a company with Richard Rodgers, his partner on the Georges Pompidou Center project in Paris, and in 1993 on the redesign of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The book presents the ten most representative projects undertaken in the last few years by the firm that Piano runs, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. They give rise to warm, luminous spaces catering to the needs of human beings. Piano brings the spirit of the small-scale craftsman to large infrastructures, painstakingly perfecting the details of a precious object. Technology is used in all his projects to tone down light, evaluate the context, and find a means to integrate them into nature. The projects include the Columbus International Exhibition in Genoa marking the 5th centenary of the discovery of America with its huge sail-like top, and there are section plans and a series of colour photographs of its construction. Another is Aurora Place office block and multi-residential building in Sydney's historic centre, close to the emblematic Opera House which demanded a high degree of formal sensitivity in the design process. The project's two buildings are connected by a square covered by a glass roof. One of our favourites is the Niccolo Paganini Auditorium in Parma, Italy built inside an old sugar factory with large glass walls and with acoustic insulation. Another is a striking bubble-shaped building for the G8 summit meeting held in Genoa in 2001 and another the Padre Pio Church in Foggia Italy, a new church capable of accommodating all the worshippers that travel to the spot every year. The entire church is made out of stone - the floors, ceiling and the structural system, made up of arches spanning more than 50 meters. The use of a single material endows the setting with great expressive power. 80 pages, full page colour images throughout, plans and drawings and text in four languages including English.