Renzo Piano Building Workshop partners reflect on three decades of architecture

Antoine Chaaya and Joost Moolhuijzen, partners at Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) since the 2000s, shared their experiences working alongside the Pritzker Prize-winning architect in a video interview for the Past, Present, Future project by Itinerant Office. Chaaya, who joined the Paris office in 1987 when the team numbered just 12-13 people, recalled the studio's early family-like atmosphere and Piano's initial resistance to growth. The turning point came with the Osaka competition, which forced expansion to 30 people. Moolhuijzen, who started in 1990, worked on projects including The Shard in London. Both emphasized RPBW's commitment to hands-on model-making as essential to understanding scale and proportion, a practice they insist on maintaining despite younger architects' preference for digital tools. The studio, now with over 100 employees, deliberately limits its size compared to other large firms. Moolhuijzen described the method of having teams follow projects from start to finish for coherence. Chaaya identified environmental sustainability as the century's great challenge, urging architects to design with sun, light, wind, and green spaces. Moolhuijzen, citing a French saying, called architecture a beautiful but tough profession, encouraging students to persevere.