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Renzo Piano[rent´sO pyA´nO] Pronunciation Key, 1937–, Italian architect, b. Genoa. Piano attended architecture school at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1964. He worked with architects Louis I. Kahn and Z. S. Makowsky from 1965 to 1970. Piano came to worldwide attention when he and Richard Rogers designed the Pompidou Centre (popularly known as Beaubourg) in Paris. A new concept in museums, it is an "urban machine" that reveals its engineering basis by having brightly colored pipes, escalators, and other service elements on the outside of the structure. The prolific Piano has been lauded for responding to the needs of each building site rather than cleaving to a single architectural style and for his command of engineering technology. His other buildings include the Menil Museum, Houston (1981–6), known particularly for the unique leaflike ferro-concrete louvers that filter the light from its transparent ceiling; the vast Kansai Air Terminal, Osaka (1994); the Beyeler Foundation, Riehen, Switzerland (1997); and the Tjibaou Cultural Center, NoumEa, New Caledonia (1998), featuring wooden staves reminiscent of local Kanak huts. In recognition of his achievements, Piano was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1998.
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