Architect · United Kingdom · 1933-2021
Richard Rogers Biography, Buildings and Best Books
British architect (1933-2021) who turned structure and services into architecture at the Centre Pompidou and Lloyd’s Building, and championed compact, humane cities.
Photo: Andrew Zuckerman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Biography
Richard Rogers (1933-2021) was a British architect and one of the pioneers of high-tech architecture. With Renzo Piano he designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and with his own practice he built the Lloyd’s Building in London, Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas Airport and the Senedd in Cardiff. He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2007 and was an influential advocate for dense, sustainable and socially mixed cities.
Florence, the AA and Yale
Born in Florence to an Anglo-Italian family, Rogers moved to England as a child. He studied at the Architectural Association in London and then at Yale, where he completed his master’s degree in 1962 and met Norman Foster. The experience of American modernism, and of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn and the Case Study Houses, stayed with him throughout his career.
Team 4 and the first houses
In 1963 Rogers, his wife Su Rogers, Norman Foster and Wendy Cheesman founded Team 4. In its short life the practice built Creek Vean, a house for Su Rogers’s parents in Cornwall, the Jaffe House, also known as Skybreak House, and the Reliance Controls factory in Swindon, an early example of the lightweight, flexible industrial architecture that would define high-tech.
Centre Pompidou and Lloyd’s
In 1971 Rogers and Renzo Piano won the competition for the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Opened in 1977, the building placed its structure, escalators and colour-coded services on the outside to free the floors for culture. Rogers founded the Richard Rogers Partnership in 1977, and the Lloyd’s Building in London (1986) took the same approach to a financial institution, with service towers clustered around a full-height atrium.
Cities, Barajas and the Pritzker Prize
From the 1980s Rogers became a public voice for urban regeneration. He chaired the government’s Urban Task Force, wrote Cities for a Small Planet and sat in the House of Lords as Lord Rogers of Riverside. His practice, renamed Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2007, built the Millennium Dome, Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas (Stirling Prize 2006), the Senedd in Cardiff and the Leadenhall Building. He received the Pritzker Prize in 2007 and died in London in 2021.
A Place for All People: Life, Architecture and the Fair Society
Rogers’s own memoir, written with Richard Brown, tells the story of his life and buildings and sets out the ideas about cities and fairness that drove his work, in 336 pages.
View on Amazon
Timeline
- 1933Born on 23 July in Florence, Italy.
- 1962Completes his master’s degree at Yale, where he meets Norman Foster.
- 1963Founds Team 4 with Su Rogers, Norman Foster and Wendy Cheesman.
- 1966Team 4 completes Creek Vean in Cornwall.
- 1971Wins the Centre Pompidou competition with Renzo Piano.
- 1977The Centre Pompidou opens and he founds the Richard Rogers Partnership.
- 1985Receives the RIBA Royal Gold Medal.
- 1986Completes the Lloyd’s Building in London.
- 1996Becomes a life peer as Lord Rogers of Riverside.
- 1999The Millennium Dome opens in London.
- 2006Wins the Stirling Prize for Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas Airport.
- 2007Receives the Pritzker Architecture Prize; the firm becomes Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
- 2014The Leadenhall Building is completed in London.
- 2021Dies on 18 December in London.
Best Books on Richard Rogers
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Richard Rogers known for?
Richard Rogers is known as a pioneer of high-tech architecture, designing the Centre Pompidou in Paris with Renzo Piano and the Lloyd’s Building in London, both with their structure and services on the outside. He was also a leading advocate for compact, sustainable cities and received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2007.
What are Richard Rogers’s most famous buildings?
His best-known buildings include the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Lloyd’s Building and the Millennium Dome in London, Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas Airport, the Senedd in Cardiff and the Leadenhall Building in London.
What is the best book on Richard Rogers?
A Place for All People, his memoir written with Richard Brown, covers his life, his buildings and his ideas about the city. For a visual overview, Richard Rogers: Inside Out from the Royal Academy is a good introduction.
What is Richard Rogers’s architectural style?
Rogers is associated with high-tech architecture: exposed structure, brightly coloured services, prefabricated components and flexible open floors. His later work adds a strong concern for public space, daylight and energy use.
Where can I see Richard Rogers’s architecture?
You can visit the Centre Pompidou in Paris, see the Lloyd’s Building and the Leadenhall Building in the City of London, pass through Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas, visit the Senedd in Cardiff and see his Drawing Gallery at Château La Coste in Provence.
