Italian design

Italy enjoys a reputation earned by centuries of devotion to aesthetics. As well as the ancient monuments and fantastic Renaissance period buildings, Italian culture includes key figures who have contributed to the development of architecture, from Marcus Vitruvius and Filippo Brunelleschi, to Leon Battista Alberti and Andrea Palladio and of course, Michelangelo. The list of internationally recognized contemporary Italian artists is somewhat shorter. Only two have won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize: Aldo Rossi in 1990 and Renzo Piano in 1998. With a portfolio of buildings such as the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Kansai airport terminal in Japan, Piano is almost the only Italian among the greats of modern architecture. He has recently shared that distinction with Rome's Massimiliano Fuksas, whose latest works have seen him join the ranks of leading designers.