a+u 652: Renzo Piano Building Workshop 2010–2025

a+u’s January issue features projects by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) from the past 15 years, as well as works to be completed in the near future. With offices in Genoa and Paris, RPBW is skilled in building in historic cities such as London, Istanbul, and New York. Yet their analytical approach, which centers the human experience by demonstrating an awareness of history, culture, and climate, produces architecture that is either in harmony or in tension with its surroundings, depending on the unique parameters of the site. The solarpunk spirit that has distinguished RPBW over the years comes through in smaller humanist projects such as the Children’s Surgical Hospital in Uganda, which combines local techniques of rammed-earth construction with high-tech photovoltaic panels, but also in buildings of monumental scale, such as the cliff-like Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens. This issue of a+u highlights RPBW creative agility by presenting 25 works, including 3 ongoing projects, that encompass principles of structural and visual lightness, environmental integration, and human-centered design. (a+u)