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Renzo Piano has created some of the most emblematic buildings of our age, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Shard in London, the Parco della Musica in Rome and the New York Times Building in New York City. Here, Renzo Piano himself — whose many international awards include the prestigious Pritzker Prize — presents in his own words the works on which he has built his reputation over a span of fifty years.

The exploration and iconoclasm of an Italian master.

In 2007, the Renzo Piano Foundation inaugurated its publishing side by issuing the first volume of a series of monographs devoted to the Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s iconic projects. The idea developed together with the reordering of the archives, which enabled the recovery of largely unpublished materials.

The history of each project is reconstructed chronologically, from the first site inspection to the building’s official opening, through sketches, drawings, models, notes and construction reports. Renzo Piano’s own accounts and the testimonies collected for these volumes are recorded and transcribed faithfully. In this way each project is narrated in the protagonists’ own words.

This book explores the world-renowned architect’s formative years, prior to the major achievement of the Centre Pompidou. Although this striking success has long tended to overshadow his earlier series of radical and innovative experimental structures, it is precisely this formative period which is fundamental to understanding the genesis of his subsequent work and his unceasing interest in industrial design. The engaging stories found in this book are an essential instrument in illuminating and reinterpreting the architect with previously unpublished archival material.