Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre Brings Architect Renzo Piano’s Genius to Light

Starting July 16, Harbourfront Centre will unveil a new exhibit chronicling the architect’s extensive portfolio of works entitled Piece by Piece: Inside the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Renzo is a recipient of the Pritzker Prize and has been practicing architecture for almost 50 years. In 1981, he established his own firm under the name Renzo Piano Building Workshop — and has been astonishingly prolific. The firm specializes in cultural buildings and museums: among their most well-known projects are the Centre Pompidou in Paris, as well as The Shard in London and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Safe to say, they’re experts in designing spaces that come to be known as cultural landmarks. What’s their secret?

This free exhibition, presented by Harbourfront Centre in partnership with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto, will offer visitors an intimate look at RPBW’s exquisite design processes, showcasing eleven of its most iconic works from first sketches to final results, in an attempt to answer the ultimate question: In architecture, how does an idea become reality?

Each project on view at the exhibit was hand-selected to demonstrate the firm’s core ethos in creating “places for people.” “Renzo Piano transformed the way we think of public spaces and public buildings,” says Veronica Mason, Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto. The team at RPBW considers themselves builders as well as architects — always present during construction, they aim to be an integral part of every step of the design. Each building, spanning a diverse range in geography, functionality, and aesthetics, was designed to play a vital civic role within their communities. The exhibition will underline the importance of how architecture is created, shining a spotlight on RBPW’s approach to making a design “piece by piece.”

For young architects-to-be and cosmopolitan design enthusiasts, this presentation will offer a peek into a world-renowned architecture firm’s process — offering never-before-seen insight on a niche practice.

Piece by Piece: Inside the Renzo Piano Building Workshop exhibit will run from July 16 – September 11, 2022 at the Artport Gallery at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.