Architectures

The Georges Pompidou Centre (1x4)

Air date: Jul 23, 1998

Richard Rogers' and Renzo Piano's winning design for the Pompidou Centre looks like an outsize meccano structure, and contrasts sharply with the surrounding Parisian architecture. The architectural project as set out in the competition rules had to meet criteria of interdisciplinarity, freedom of movement & flow and an open approach to exhibition areas. The competition was won by two young architects: Italian Renzo Piano and British designer Richard Rogers who proposed an architecture freed from constraints and in the vein of the 60s' spirit. The supporting structure and movement & flow systems such as the escalators were relegated to the outside of the building, thereby freeing interior space for museum and activity areas. Secured to the external west façade of the building and constituting "dressing" for the structure, the technical ducting featured four colors: blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electrical sheaths and red for movement & flow. The transparent nature of the west main façade makes for an outside-looking-in approach which enables people to see what is going on inside the Center from the piazza, a vast esplanade which the architects conceived as a continuity zone linking city and center.