Abstract :
For 30 years, Renzo Piano has been producing distinguished buildings and delighting the world with his innovation and sensitivity. Here, Livio Sacchi attempts to tease out some of the reasons behind Pianoʹs sustained success. Having gained an almost unparalleled international profile during the last couple of decades, a period that has been notoriously difficult for Italian architects, Pianoʹs career has an almost mythic quality. It boasts one of the most unlikely competition wins of all time that ceded one of the most prestigious sites in the world, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to two completely unknown architects in their late 20s. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Keywords :
Pritzker Prize , 2000- , New York , Centre Pompidou , London Tower Bridge , 2006 , the Beaubourg , 2000- , Valencia , Richard Rogers , London , New Team Luna Rossa base , Pianoיs use of brick , housing complex in rue de Meaux , Spain , IRCAM in Paris , Banco Popolare di Lodi in Milan , 2006 , Place Stravinsky , Potsdamer/Leipziger Platz in Berlin , contemporary and minimally serene spaces , solid brick masonry , unexpected ability to engage in transcultural dialogue: one of the most heartfelt themes of the contemporary condition , soft-touch approach , a system of neoprene gaskets on steel rods , JM Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouméa , Western rationality and local tradition , increasing the range of contemporary construction techniques , murder of Kanak leader Jean Marie Tjibaou , De Menil Museum in Houston (1986) , Renzo Piano Building Workshop , mediatheque , Maison Hermès in Tokyo (2001) , reinforced concrete building structure , New Caledonia , an ability to work using a basic language , New York Times Tower , didactic laboratories , Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome , New York , Morgan Library , American Beaux Arts movement , dry-laid , perforated skin , High-tech , panels held by baked enamel finished steel or stainless-steel frames , terracotta elements in the form of narrow tubes , calibrated levels of natural and artificial light
