Richard Rogers was born in Florence to an Anglo-Italian family that left for England in 1939. Dyslexic and unhappy at school, he found his footing at the Architectural Association and then at Yale, where he met Norman Foster; the two founded Team 4 on their return. Winning the Centre Pompidou competition with Renzo Piano in 1971 made him internationally famous at thirty-eight and fixed the terms of his architecture: structure, ducts and circulation pushed to the outside, the interior left as free, serviced floor. The Lloyd's building in London repeated the argument at higher intensity. Rogers was also a persistent public advocate — chairman of the Urban Task Force, adviser on London's planning, and a consistent voice for compact, mixed, walkable cities. He received the Pritzker Prize in 2007.
