Son of a modest builder, the works of which he visited since he was a child, Renzo Piano grew up fascinated by the magic of building as well as the magic of making ships in the port. Educated by construction and the docks, he decided to study architecture, first in Florence and then Milan, where he managed to make his participation in the student revolt compatible with professional training in Franco Albini’s studio, where he perfected the practical knowledge learnt from his father as well as his elder brother, who was also a builder. To the mentorship of Albini we can add that of Marco Zanuso and a distant admiration of Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, and Jean Prouvé, who were to inspire his first projects, sharing his endeavor for lightness. The desire for wider horizons took him to London, where he taught at the Architectural Association and met Richard Rogers, who was also teaching there, and they became friends and fraternal partners. Piano’s Studio, that had initially made very experimental projects between 1964 and 1970 (among which were the Pavilion of Italian Industry in Expo 1970, Osaka) became Piano & Rogers in 1971, coinciding with the extraordinary victory of the young architects in the grand competition for the Pompidou Center... [+]