Renzo Piano

Awarded by the International Union of Architects within the context of their triennial congresses, this year’s medal has gone to the Italian architect Renzo Piano, who holds, among other prizes, the Auguste Perret (1978), the RIBA’s Gold Medal (1990), the Praemium Imperiale (1995), and the Pritzker Prize (1998). As evidenced by the name of past awardees – Hassan Fathy, Reima Pietilä, Charles Correa, Fumihiko Maki, Rafael Moneo and Ricardo Legorreta –, this institution that brings together all the professional associations, studies each candidacy in detail because it looks for unanimously recognized figures with an exemplary trajectory, either for their social commitment or the coherence of their oeuvre. The Genoese is a distinguished representative of ‘techno-humanism’, an approach that puts technology at the service of the creation of more pleasant human environments. Aside from other mythical buildings such as the Pompidou Center or the Menil Collection, Piano has completed works like the Kanak Center in New Caledonia, where he carried out a lyrical interpretation of vernacular traditions using contemporary tools.