This is the second of five authoritative and stylish volumes on one of the world's greatest contemporary architects, written by one of today's most important critics. This tome on Renzo Piano (b.1937) provides an enlightening study of his underlying approach to architecture and how this influences his technique, followed by a detailed presentation of the range of his buildings and projects from the period 1987 to 1993.

In an interview recorded especially for this book, Piano talks about his early career as a designer, his attitude towards technology and his continuing evolution of what Peter Buchanan has called a natural architecture. Many of the completed buildings featured in this volume are located in and around Piano's home town of Genoa: from the soaring structures associated with the 1992 Expo in the old docks, to the ground-hugging form of his own laboratory-workshop in Vesima.