Renzo Piano was born in 1937 in Genoa, a maritime city in northern Italy.
“I was born and brought up in Genoa, a Mediterranean city, and this has influenced my life. Half of my city is water. It’s a large port and everything moves: ships and cranes float, and you have the ceaseless feeling that all things are in perpetual motion” (Renzo Piano on La Stampa, March 13, 2015)
If we have to find a term to define him, we would choose “humanist”, since he is one of the few architects in the world capable to combine – like Renaissance’s architects – outstanding technical skills, artistic sensibility, and a strong belief in the ethos of architecture and in the possibility for designers to positively influence people’s life.
Since, in 1971, he entered the big design scene with a bang, winning the competition for the Centre Pompidou in Paris together with Richard Rogers, Piano has always pursued a crystal clear idea of architecture as a means to convey a positive approach to society.
Although Piano has conceived almost every possible type of buildings, including urban icons such as The Shard in London or the New York Times headquarters, museums have always been his centerpiece with at least a dozen masterpieces built in Europe, Oceania, and the United States.
Since 1981, Piano operates through the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, with offices in Genoa, Paris, and New York.
He is a recipient of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the Praemium Imperiale, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and the AIA Gold Medal.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures – Los Angeles

Aquarium of Genoa

Astrup Fearnley Museet – Oslo

Botín Center – Santander

California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco

Centre Pompidou Paris

Fondation Beyeler

Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé | Paris

Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

High Museum of Art | Atlanta, GA

Kimbell Art Museum

LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Morgan Library and Museum

Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

Nemo Science Center – Amsterdam

New York | the new home of the Whitney

Notre Dame du Haut Chapel by Le Corbusier – Ronchamp

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli – Turin

Renzo Piano’s exhibition pavilion at Château La Coste, southern France

The Art Institute of Chicago

The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center by Renzo Piano

The Menil Collection – Houston, TX

Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
copyright Inexhibit 2021 - ISSN: 2283-5474