When you are born in a city like Genoa, growing up against the backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea, with a constant desire to discover what lies beyond...
Here is a preview of the documentary Conversations with Renzo Piano from the arquia/masters collection. It will be available for sale on the Arquia Foundation's website soon.
Renzo Piano (Genoa, 1937-). One of the most important architects of our time, Renzo Piano, was the co-creator of the legendary Pompidou Centre with Richard Rogers when they were both young. Since then, he has had a career that has been guided by technical innovation and social awareness. His knowledge of construction has allowed him to bring together aesthetic values and technologies in countless works across all five continents, known for their lightness, luminosity and cultural dimension. Buildings that are colossal yet with a lightness of touch, such as Kansai Airport in Osaka Bay, the headquarters of the New York Times or the Shard in London, are combined with exciting museums with a meticulous design, like the Menil Collection in Houston, the Beyeler Foundation in Basil and the new Whitney Museum in New York. All of these projects have benefited from his offices in Paris and Genoa working in tandem and the intelligent support of clients committed to excellence. In the conversation with Luis Fernández-Galiano that was recorded at his home and studio in Punta Nave, Piano covers his life story, from the early years, marked by his father who was a builder and the influence of nearby masters like Franco Albini and faraway masters like Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto and Jean Prouvé, to his most recent works in the United States and Europe, where he has been every bit the equal of the Kimbell Museum's Louis Kahn and Ronchamp's Le Corbusier. Facing the Mediterranean Sea that inspires his navigator's spirit, the architect reaffirms his commitment to the people who use his buildings and comments on his most recently inaugurated building, the Botín Centre, which stands facing the Bay of Santander.
