Paris : architecture, 1900-2000

Renzo Piano (Genoa, 1937) studied architecture at the Polytechnic in Milan. Since winning the competition to design the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1971) along with Richard Rogers, Piano has become a prominent figure on the international architectural scene, with more works constructed outside Italy than in his own country. Piano brings a similar approach to both the small and the large scale. He has directed projects of very varying sizes: small buildings like the travelling IBN Pavilion and the Brancusi Museum; and great megastructures like Kansai's International Airport Terminal built on a man-made island in the Bay of Tokyo, and the remodeling of Berlin's Potsdamer Platz where work is scheduled to be completed in 2002.