British architect Richard Rogers has been described as the last humanist, a recognition of his ambition to create public spaces that allow for the diversity and complexity of the contemporary world. This weighty monograph takes a look at the work of Rogers and his partners, from his early career in the 1960s and 1970s, to his famous collaboration with Renzo Piano on the design of the Pompidou Centre (1971-77), to numerous projects up to the present day, through his architectural practice, Richard Rogers Partnership (now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners). Rogers and his team often deploy new materials and innovative techniques to build structures that are lightweight, environmentally friendly and transparent; a signature strategy has been to expose those parts of a structure that have traditionally been concealed, such as water, heating and ventilation ducts, situating them instead on the outside of the building, leaving the internal spaces uncluttered and open. In this book, projects executed by Richard Rogers and his partners are presented in sections devoted to each of the architectural keywords that define his work: legible; transparent; lightweight; systems; green; urban; public; together with sections on both early work and work in progress.
Richard Rogers (born 1933) attended the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and obtained his MA from the Yale School of Architecture in 1962. From early on in his career, Rogers pursued and thrived on collaboration, working with colleagues such as Norman Foster and Renzo Piano. It was with the latter that Rogers designed the building for which he is perhaps best known today, the Pompidou Center in Paris. In May 2006 Rogers' practice was chosen to design the third tower of the new World Trade Center in New York.