Publication information

PIANO o el constructor

The new ‘Retratos’ series – published by Arquitectura Viva in Spanish only – compiles texts that Luis Fernández-Galiano has written on the life and work of a selection of contemporary architects. Piano o el constructor is the fourth title out, after those devoted to Rafael Moneo, Norman Foster, and Rem Koolhaas, and the rest – on Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Peter Eisenman, and Santiago Calatrava – will likewise soon be seeing the light, in succession. Illustrated with the architects’ own drawings and enriched with in-depth interviews, biographical accounts, and analyses of their works, these small books try to paint pixelated portraits of current masters, informative and critical at the same time.

The book Piano o el constructor – 96 pages in soft cover – gathers fifteen essays on the life and work of Renzo Piano. The collection of articles begins with a brief biography and ends with an extensive conversation held in his house at Punta Nave, where the Genoese architect looks back on his long trajectory, from his training years to today’s projects all over the world and the support that his Foundation gives to young people. In between, texts on various episodes of his career are reproduced in chronological order, sometimes contrasting his approach with that of other architects. Kansai International Airport explores the large scale and the headquarters of The New York Times the high-rise, whereas the Padre Pío Pilgrimage Church and the convent at Ronchamp represent different responses to the religious commission. But museums are perhaps the architectural type in which Piano has been most influential, from the mythical Pompidou he designed with Richard Rogers or that absolute masterpiece that the Menil is, to his first project in Spain, the Botín Centre in Santander, all of which are a union of technological refinement, love of artisanship, and civic sensibility.

Collection 'Retratos', 2021
Language: Spanish
Soft cover
96 pages