The new collection ‘Portraits’, edited by Arquitectura Viva, includes different texts by Luis Fernández-Galiano on the life and work of a group of contemporary architects. Piano or the constructor is the fourth title of the same, after those dedicated to Rafael Moneo, Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas, and in successive installments the rest will appear, about Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Peter Eisenman and Santiago Calatrava. Illustrated with drawings by the architects themselves, and enriched with in-depth interviews, biographical reviews and analysis of the works, these little books want to offer pixelated portraits of current masters, informative and critical at the same time.
The 96-page softcover 'Piano o el constructor' book comprises fifteen texts that cover the life and work of Renzo Piano. The collection of articles begins with a succinct biography, and closes with an extensive conversation at his home in Punta Nave where the Genoese architect reviews his long career, from the formative years to current projects around the world and the support for young people from its Foundation. Between the two pieces, texts that comment on different episodes of his career are reproduced in chronological order, sometimes in contrast to the approach of other architects: thus the Kansai airport explores the large scale and the headquarters of The New York Times the great height, while the church of Padre Pio or the convent of Ronchamp offer different answers to the religious order. But perhaps museums are the architectural type in which he has been most influential, from the mythical Pompidou that he made with Richard Rogers or that absolute masterpiece that is the Menil, and until his first commission in Spain, the Botín Center in Santander, realizations all of them in which he has united technological refinement, love of craftsmanship and citizen sensitivity.
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