Born in Genoa, Renzo Piano graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1964. Around 100 people, including architects, engineers and specialists connected to him by years of experience, are currently working in his workshops in Paris and Genoa. He’s received a host of awards and international prizes for his constant activities that always bear the hallmark of his indisputable professionalism, including the one most deservedly awarded today, which represents the excellence of Italian design as a harmonious fusion of creativity, innovation and high tech. Air, light, transparency and movement appear as a recurring theme, from Basel Museum to the renovated Beaubourg arts centre in Paris, from the skyscrapers of Sydney to Houston Museum and Osaka’s Kansai International Airport: tangible signs of his creativity across four continents. However, for Renzo Piano who’s always travelling round the world, Italy is a haven and the right place, as he himself says, “to bring one’s ideas to life”.

{backbutton}