Renzo Piano (Genoa, 1937) studied architecture at the Polytechnic in Milan. Since winning the competition to design the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1971) along with Richard Rogers, Piano has
become a prominent figure on the international architectural scene, with more works constructed outside Italy than in his own country. Piano brings a similar approach to both the small and the
large scale. He has directed projects of very varying sizes: small buildings like the travelling IBN Pavilion and the Brancusi Museum; and great megastructures like Kansai's International
Airport Terminal built on a man-made island in the Bay of Tokyo, and the remodeling of Berlin's Potsdamer Platz where work is scheduled to be completed in 2002.