Town and gown — economist.com

RENZO PIANO has long fought against what he calls “the mystification of culture”. The Pompidou Centre in Paris, which he designed with Richard Rogers and which opened in 1977, was a manifesto for a new kind of museum, a thumb in the eye to those who believe that art must be quarantined from the unwashed masses. Over the decades Mr Piano has shed some of the brashness of youth, but that initial populist impulse remains. Now 77, he is the most prolific designer of museums in the world, with more than 21 projects completed so far and more on the drawing board. Surprisingly, given his iconoclastic start, that success has been founded on tact and a subtle appreciation for the nuances of a site and his clients’ needs. Mr Piano has constructed his share of eye-catching monuments, from the sleek Menil Collection in Houston to the 87-floor glass “Shard” in London. But he is at his best when forced to adopt a more modest profile: accommodating an existing structure, playing new forms off old or breathing life into institutions suffocated by the weight of their own histories.

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