Forty
Blue color marks air-conditioning pipework, yellow is for electrics, green denotes water pipes and red highlights tubular escalators and elevators. The hated and loved architecture of Centre Pompidou is celebrating 40 years.
Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Prouvé and Philip Johnson were the jurors who awarded Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano for constructing the centre in 1971.
During the construction the architects set up their studio in an inflatable structure on the edge of the River Seine | Photo by Rogers Stirk Harbour
The Centre was designed as a fun palace for the city. It was intended to operate as a cross between an information-oriented computerized Times Square and the British Museum according to Rogers.
Piano and Rogers on the staircase of Centre Pompidou.
I. M. Pei in front of Pompidou Centre in 1978 | Photo by Marc Riboud
Situated in the Paris Beaubourg area was originally called the Centre Beaubourg. It was renamed the Centre Georges Pompidou after former French prime minister and president, who died during the building’s construction.
Initial concept of the building | Photo via richardrogers.co.uk
Structure of Centre Pompidou | Photo via fondazionerenzopiano.org
Over 15,000 tonnes of steel were used in the construction, including a network of ten-tonne gerberettes that define the building’s outward-facing appearance. The Pompidou’s famed inside-out approach sees its colour-coded technical guts expressed externally, in a bid to keep the floorplan of each of its ten storeys column-free.
Rice, Piano and Rogers on site | Photo by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners