Paolo Riani
Paolo Riani, born September 8, 1937, in Barga, Tuscany, is an Italian architect and urban planner with projects around the world. He grew up in Montecatini Terme and studied architecture at the University of Florence, graduating in 1965 with a focus on urban planning. From 1965 to 1971 he lived in Tokyo, working in Kenzo Tange’s offices alongside Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa, and he taught Master Planning at the University of Tokyo. His notable Tokyo projects include Caesar’s Palace nightclub (1969), a Mitsubishi Estate project (1971) and the Kyoto Master Plan. He later kept a home and office in Viareggio on the Tuscan coast.
Between 1994 and 1998 he left architecture to enter politics and was elected senator in the XII Legislature. He contributed to work for the European Community, NATO and the United Nations. After politics, he returned to architecture, designing a sustainable development plan for the Massaciuccoli lake, multi-use centers in Massa, Viareggio and Lucca, an industrial complex in Monsagrati, a residential estate in Pieve a Nievole, the Resistance Museum in Genoa and restoration projects in Alta Valdera and Peccioli.
From 2000 to 2002 he served as Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. Since 2002 he has been the executive director of the Italian Cultural Foundation of America, a nonprofit organization co-founded with his wife Elizabeth. He returned to teaching and in 2004 became an architecture professor at Pisa University’s Engineering Faculty, and in 2005 was named an honorary member of the Academic Senate of the International Academy of Modern Art in Rome.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:22 (CET).