This medal is the highest AIA award for a private individual, its laureates are determined each year by a vote of the Institute's Board of Directors. The award recognizes outstanding personal contributions to the theory and practice of architecture.
In a statement, AIA management highlighted Piano's wide range of professional interests, his work was described as “sculptural, beautiful, technically perfect and resource-efficient,” and it was emphasized that the architect himself combines different disciplines in his projects in a coherent, human-centered environment.
Among his most famous works of recent decades are the Olivetti office building in Naples, the Kansai International Airport terminal in Osaka, the NEMO National Science and Technology Center in Amsterdam, the San Pio Church in Foggia, Italy, and the Paul Klee Center in Bern.
Renzo Piano won the world's most prestigious architecture prize - the Pritzker Prize - back in 1988, and is now 64th on the list of AIA Gold Medalists, behind Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn and Louis Sullivan.
