ARCHITECTURE: Richard Rogers
Richard Rogers (23/7/1933-18/12/2021) is best known for such pioneering buildings as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the headquarters for Lloyd’s of London, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Millennium Dome in London. His practice Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP) was founded in 1977, and has offices in London, Barcelona, Madrid and Tokyo.
Βy Dimitris Lempesis
His studio (RRP) has designed two major airport projects -Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport and the New Area Terminal at Madrid Barajas Airport, as well as high-rise office projects in London, a new law court complex in Antwerp, the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, and a hotel and conference center in Barcelona. The practice also has a wealth of experience in urban masterplanning with major schemes in London, Lisbon, Berlin, New York and Seoul. By any standards, Richard Rogers has had an extraordinary life, from the time of his birth in Florence, Italy on 1933, to being named The Lord Rogers of Riverside in 1996, and to the present to be chosen as the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. By 1971, Rogers’ practice was involved in the rooftop extension of a factory building for DRU, and had taken on a new partner, Renzo Piano, and soon the practice had a new name, Piano & Rogers. In that same year, the commission to design the Centre Pompidou in Paris was won, which would project both Rogers and Piano onto the world stage of architecture. The Centre Pompidou took six years and most of the practice to Paris for that time. This fall, there will be an exhibition of the history of Rogers’ architectural achievements at Centre Pompidou. In 1978, the separation of Piano and Rogers was finalized. At that same time, Rogers produced his new practice which was formed based on relationships developed over the past twenty years: Richard Rogers Partnership. The Lloyd’s of London building was its first commission and firmly established Rogers as a major architect not only in England, but the rest of the world. His many honors except Pritzker Prize and Golden Lion, include the Praemium Imperiale in 2000, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Medal in 1999, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy & Institute of Arts and Letters in 1989, the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1985.
