Project

The President of France, Georges Pompidou, who governed from 1969 to 1974, wanted to revitalize the Les Halles neighborhood, an economically and socially depressed area. There was the food market, a huge center that sold wholesale and retail products. It was designed in the time of Napoleon; and his first project was historicist, which the emperor refused. Thus, this huge market had a more functional design, with covers on all the pavilions and streets, and with a metal structure. Pompidou, to revitalize the IV Arrondissement, decided to demolish this market as it gave off bad odors and produced chaotic traffic. In its place, the stock exchange building was built, with a circular plan, some gardens and a new shopping center with connection to the neighborhood's metro station.

Another building belonging to this revitalization plan is the Georges Pompidou Center, originally called the Beaubourg Center. It is a contemporary art museum, has a large civic center and a public access library. The competition to choose the design of this building began in 1970, and the jury was made up of distinguished and renowned architects. Those who won were Renzo Piano (*1937) and Richard Rogers (*1933), two young and unknown architects in that year, who partnered on this project and only one other. Rogers British architect, born in Italy and graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Renzo, Italian architect, graduated from the Milan Polytechnic.

These two architects won the competition, apart from their excellent project, thanks to two members of the jury. One of them was Philip Johnson (1906–2005), an American of the Miesian movement who introduced European architecture to the United States after World War II. The other was Jean Prouvé (1901–1984), a Frenchman from the branch of French architects who linked technology to architecture in the 1950s. Le Ricolais was an experimental engineer who tested lightweight, tensioned metal structures. Prouvé, influenced by this engineer, was very interested in technology and that is why he quite liked Piano and Rogers' project. Prouvé was the biggest driver in giving victory to these two young people. Construction of the Pompidou began in 1970. Four years later, the then President of France, Georges Pompidou, died, so work on the building suffered a major halt. It was the widow of the French president who made it successfully completed in 1977.

Architectural influences

The Pompidou Center contrasts greatly with the buildings that surround it. Thus, the shape, colors and height of this building turn out to be strident for its surroundings at the time it was built and also today. Its function is also strange for the time in which it was made. A center that brings together architecture, modern art, ancient art, books and places where children "play with art" was not common then. Its contemporary art museum is the most important in the world. As for its external appearance, the network of bars, tubes and technological elements that crowd the facades makes the Pompidou look like a technological toy, similar to a Meccano. It is called by Parisians "The Gas Factory." This stridency that characterizes it so much was part of the contest's aims.

It is one of the first buildings of the High-tech trend. He is notably influenced by the architecture of Mies Van der Rohe and that of the Archigram group. Regarding the influence of the German architect, the rationalism typical of his Modern Architecture can be seen in the building in the sense that the building is understood as an empty container into which anything can be placed. The interior of the Pompidou is completely open-plan and is understood by Johnson as a container with mobile interior spaces. The large spans are supported by a total of fourteen enormous vierendel beams parallel to each other and perpendicular to the façade of the square. The influence of the Archigram group is palpable in the new and complicated shapes that the building has in terms of the many tubes, bars and structures that invade the facades, using a "joking technology." Archigram created numerous designs in the 1960s full of fantasy and psychedelic looks with hippie influences. His projects abounded in tubes, colors and exterior metal structures.

Urban environment

The Pompidou Center occupies just under half of its site. The remaining part is a huge public square considered part of the building since activities related to the center are carried out there. The design of this outdoor space was decisive in Piano and Rogers' victory in the competition. Street theaters, cartoonists, small street shops and youth groups gather in the square, all related to art and culture. At the limits of this public space there are enormous tubes, some of them grouped two by two, which are the vents for the underground parking that occupies the entire site. The large size of these cooling tubes and their similarity to the ventilation channels of ships make them unique elements of the Pompidou Centre, expanding the limits of the building to the entire square. The floor of this is slightly inclined towards the Pompidou Centre, so the building acts as a backdrop.

Since the restoration of the Pompidou Center carried out from September 1997 to January 2000, there are more restrictions on the activities that take place in the square, with more surveillance both inside and outside the building. In this reform, some streets adjacent to the square that were previously pedestrian were opened to traffic. The rest of the buildings that are part of the square are, mainly, from the end of the century, in a modernist style and with influences from older buildings. The buildings that face the west face of the Pompidou have mansards. In many of these buildings there were art galleries that turned out to be very visited thanks to the proximity of the Pompidou. Progressively, these art rooms gave way to shops, which are very successful thanks to the large influx of tourists who visit the Pompidou Center.

This building is the third most visited site in Paris. In this way, in the neighborhood that surrounds the art center there is a mix between tourists and “scoundrel” and uninhibited young people. There are also yuppies, aggressive executives who live in very expensive apartments. Jean Baudrillard wrote the book L’effect Beaubourg in 1977. In it he talks about what the construction of the Pompidou means for the neighborhood in which it is located, a depressed area before the existence of this art center. Baudrillard says in his book that the art of the century is transgressive, secret and that it wants to change society. He also points out that the planned misuse of the Pompidou Center is an expression of the hatred generated by this contemporary and mysterious art.

Structure

The building has thirteen openings in each of the floors limited by fourteen parallel vierendel beams. These pieces are of enormous size and are prefabricated, so a large logistical effort had to be made to get them to the construction site. The beams are visible on the side facades (north and south). The beams from different floors are joined together with tensioners. The pillars of the Pompidou are metal with a round section. There is an invented structure in this building known by the name Gerberette. They are horizontal metal pieces anchored to the pillars at one end as cantilevers. They have a curved section and their function is to hold the metal structures that protrude from the west and east facades. Their inventor is the German engineer Gerberett"), and they were designed to expand the surface of the bridges. In this way, it is observed that the entire structure of the Pompidou is metallic, apparently failing to comply with Parisian fire regulations. However, this legislation is respected since the pillars are cooled by the water inside each of them.

On the west and east façades there are "Saint Andrew's crosses", tensioners crossed perpendicularly to each other, and inclined at approximately 45° with respect to the ground, placed in each square formed by the horizontal and vertical bars on the outside of these façades. These tensioners are surprisingly thin and have a lot of security, meaning that for the structure they make up to fail, quite a few of these tensioners would have to be cut. To finish off the "tangle of bars and structures" on the facades, the one facing the square includes the structure that supports the exterior staircase. There are bars and tubes on the facades that have no structural function, and their only purpose is to contribute to the visual chaos that makes it difficult to understand the space. Behind this set of bars and tubes are the facades themselves. They have continuous glazing, divided into rectangular modules and with orthogonal metal carpentry.

Facilities

In the center of the service façade (the east façade, opposite the plaza) there is a tower with three exterior elevators, and on the plaza façade (the west façade) there is an exterior staircase that crosses the building from left to right (as seen from the plaza), which is inside a transparent tube and is divided into sections. This façade is the only one that is media-oriented, that is, large posters are posted on it for commercial purposes. The Pompidou had three underground floors used as parking, but after the 1997 restoration it had two. The Pompidou has a total of seven floors located above ground level. The plan is rectangular, with the longest sides corresponding to the plaza façade and the service façade. On the top floor there is a famous fusion food restaurant. It has a patio located in the upper right corner (as you look at the building from the square). This terrace is accessed by the external staircase on the façade of the square. Inside the restaurant there are "Gehrian" pieces of clear deconstructivist influence that are not related to the Pompidou style. These sculptures were designed by a couple of architects and placed in the 1997 renovation.

The facilities and structures of the building have a series of colors that serve as a code so that the visitor knows the function of each element. The pieces painted red fulfill the communication function (elevators and stairs), the blue is the air conditioning, the green is the water installations (plumbing, drains,...), the yellow is the electricity, and the white is the air intakes and extractions. The exterior staircase on the plaza façade has its inclined slabs painted red. The stairs, which are mechanical, are covered by a transparent circular section tube. They are divided into several sections, and between each section there is a flat area that communicates with a plant. Inside the tube there are many technological elements to make spatial perception difficult.

On the east façade there are many service pipes, each with the color corresponding to its function. The large number of structural bars and tubes create "five layers of technology." Although the arrangement of the tubes on this façade does not have any apparent order, it can be seen that the blue tubes are paired; however, the existence of horizontal elements that protrude from the façade compared to the vertical ones is striking. On the south façade there are arcades that protect passers-by from the rain.

Inside

Although all the tubes and bars do not allow us to see the facades of the Pompidou, the interior is quite bright since the glazing is continuous. All the pipes and elements on the facades pass through the interior ceilings, all of these elements being visible. In this way, inside the building the same image of chaos and tangle of technological elements typical of the exterior is achieved. Renzo Piano placed a small false ceiling over each work of art to visually protect it from the network of tubes on the ceiling and prevent the eye from being distracted when contemplating the exhibited work.

Quotes about the Pompidou Center

The architect Charles Jenks") said in relation to the Center Pompidou: "*The Beaubourg presents us with the spectacle of a public that gathers en masse through the tubes of the visible façade, driven by the fetishistic desire to touch the relics of a culture born, instead, under the cover of the secrecy of transgression." Jenks defined the Pompidou as a "hedgehog cultural center." This building is the first to be exhibited by itself, showing the architecture as a spectacle playful and fun, something similar to what happens with the design of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which often overshadows the works of art it houses.

Project

The President of France, Georges Pompidou, who governed from 1969 to 1974, wanted to revitalize the Les Halles neighborhood, an economically and socially depressed area. There was the food market, a huge center that sold wholesale and retail products. It was designed in the time of Napoleon; and his first project was historicist, which the emperor refused. Thus, this huge market had a more functional design, with covers on all the pavilions and streets, and with a metal structure. Pompidou, to revitalize the IV Arrondissement, decided to demolish this market as it gave off bad odors and produced chaotic traffic. In its place, the stock exchange building was built, with a circular plan, some gardens and a new shopping center with connection to the neighborhood's metro station.

Another building belonging to this revitalization plan is the Georges Pompidou Center, originally called the Beaubourg Center. It is a contemporary art museum, has a large civic center and a public access library. The competition to choose the design of this building began in 1970, and the jury was made up of distinguished and renowned architects. Those who won were Renzo Piano (*1937) and Richard Rogers (*1933), two young and unknown architects in that year, who partnered on this project and only one other. Rogers British architect, born in Italy and graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Renzo, Italian architect, graduated from the Milan Polytechnic.

These two architects won the competition, apart from their excellent project, thanks to two members of the jury. One of them was Philip Johnson (1906–2005), an American of the Miesian movement who introduced European architecture to the United States after World War II. The other was Jean Prouvé (1901–1984), a Frenchman from the branch of French architects who linked technology to architecture in the 1950s. Le Ricolais was an experimental engineer who tested lightweight, tensioned metal structures. Prouvé, influenced by this engineer, was very interested in technology and that is why he quite liked Piano and Rogers' project. Prouvé was the biggest driver in giving victory to these two young people. Construction of the Pompidou began in 1970. Four years later, the then President of France, Georges Pompidou, died, so work on the building suffered a major halt. It was the widow of the French president who made it successfully completed in 1977.

Architectural influences

The Pompidou Center contrasts greatly with the buildings that surround it. Thus, the shape, colors and height of this building turn out to be strident for its surroundings at the time it was built and also today. Its function is also strange for the time in which it was made. A center that brings together architecture, modern art, ancient art, books and places where children "play with art" was not common then. Its contemporary art museum is the most important in the world. As for its external appearance, the network of bars, tubes and technological elements that crowd the facades makes the Pompidou look like a technological toy, similar to a Meccano. It is called by Parisians "The Gas Factory." This stridency that characterizes it so much was part of the contest's aims.

It is one of the first buildings of the High-tech trend. He is notably influenced by the architecture of Mies Van der Rohe and that of the Archigram group. Regarding the influence of the German architect, the rationalism typical of his Modern Architecture can be seen in the building in the sense that the building is understood as an empty container into which anything can be placed. The interior of the Pompidou is completely open-plan and is understood by Johnson as a container with mobile interior spaces. The large spans are supported by a total of fourteen enormous vierendel beams parallel to each other and perpendicular to the façade of the square. The influence of the Archigram group is palpable in the new and complicated shapes that the building has in terms of the many tubes, bars and structures that invade the facades, using a "joking technology." Archigram created numerous designs in the 1960s full of fantasy and psychedelic looks with hippie influences. His projects abounded in tubes, colors and exterior metal structures.

Urban environment

The Pompidou Center occupies just under half of its site. The remaining part is a huge public square considered part of the building since activities related to the center are carried out there. The design of this outdoor space was decisive in Piano and Rogers' victory in the competition. Street theaters, cartoonists, small street shops and youth groups gather in the square, all related to art and culture. At the limits of this public space there are enormous tubes, some of them grouped two by two, which are the vents for the underground parking that occupies the entire site. The large size of these cooling tubes and their similarity to the ventilation channels of ships make them unique elements of the Pompidou Centre, expanding the limits of the building to the entire square. The floor of this is slightly inclined towards the Pompidou Centre, so the building acts as a backdrop.

Since the restoration of the Pompidou Center carried out from September 1997 to January 2000, there are more restrictions on the activities that take place in the square, with more surveillance both inside and outside the building. In this reform, some streets adjacent to the square that were previously pedestrian were opened to traffic. The rest of the buildings that are part of the square are, mainly, from the end of the century, in a modernist style and with influences from older buildings. The buildings that face the west face of the Pompidou have mansards. In many of these buildings there were art galleries that turned out to be very visited thanks to the proximity of the Pompidou. Progressively, these art rooms gave way to shops, which are very successful thanks to the large influx of tourists who visit the Pompidou Center.

This building is the third most visited site in Paris. In this way, in the neighborhood that surrounds the art center there is a mix between tourists and “scoundrel” and uninhibited young people. There are also yuppies, aggressive executives who live in very expensive apartments. Jean Baudrillard wrote the book L’effect Beaubourg in 1977. In it he talks about what the construction of the Pompidou means for the neighborhood in which it is located, a depressed area before the existence of this art center. Baudrillard says in his book that the art of the century is transgressive, secret and that it wants to change society. He also points out that the planned misuse of the Pompidou Center is an expression of the hatred generated by this contemporary and mysterious art.

Structure

The building has thirteen openings in each of the floors limited by fourteen parallel vierendel beams. These pieces are of enormous size and are prefabricated, so a large logistical effort had to be made to get them to the construction site. The beams are visible on the side facades (north and south). The beams from different floors are joined together with tensioners. The pillars of the Pompidou are metal with a round section. There is an invented structure in this building known by the name Gerberette. They are horizontal metal pieces anchored to the pillars at one end as cantilevers. They have a curved section and their function is to hold the metal structures that protrude from the west and east facades. Their inventor is the German engineer Gerberett"), and they were designed to expand the surface of the bridges. In this way, it is observed that the entire structure of the Pompidou is metallic, apparently failing to comply with Parisian fire regulations. However, this legislation is respected since the pillars are cooled by the water inside each of them.

On the west and east façades there are "Saint Andrew's crosses", tensioners crossed perpendicularly to each other, and inclined at approximately 45° with respect to the ground, placed in each square formed by the horizontal and vertical bars on the outside of these façades. These tensioners are surprisingly thin and have a lot of security, meaning that for the structure they make up to fail, quite a few of these tensioners would have to be cut. To finish off the "tangle of bars and structures" on the facades, the one facing the square includes the structure that supports the exterior staircase. There are bars and tubes on the facades that have no structural function, and their only purpose is to contribute to the visual chaos that makes it difficult to understand the space. Behind this set of bars and tubes are the facades themselves. They have continuous glazing, divided into rectangular modules and with orthogonal metal carpentry.

Facilities

In the center of the service façade (the east façade, opposite the plaza) there is a tower with three exterior elevators, and on the plaza façade (the west façade) there is an exterior staircase that crosses the building from left to right (as seen from the plaza), which is inside a transparent tube and is divided into sections. This façade is the only one that is media-oriented, that is, large posters are posted on it for commercial purposes. The Pompidou had three underground floors used as parking, but after the 1997 restoration it had two. The Pompidou has a total of seven floors located above ground level. The plan is rectangular, with the longest sides corresponding to the plaza façade and the service façade. On the top floor there is a famous fusion food restaurant. It has a patio located in the upper right corner (as you look at the building from the square). This terrace is accessed by the external staircase on the façade of the square. Inside the restaurant there are "Gehrian" pieces of clear deconstructivist influence that are not related to the Pompidou style. These sculptures were designed by a couple of architects and placed in the 1997 renovation.

The facilities and structures of the building have a series of colors that serve as a code so that the visitor knows the function of each element. The pieces painted red fulfill the communication function (elevators and stairs), the blue is the air conditioning, the green is the water installations (plumbing, drains,...), the yellow is the electricity, and the white is the air intakes and extractions. The exterior staircase on the plaza façade has its inclined slabs painted red. The stairs, which are mechanical, are covered by a transparent circular section tube. They are divided into several sections, and between each section there is a flat area that communicates with a plant. Inside the tube there are many technological elements to make spatial perception difficult.

On the east façade there are many service pipes, each with the color corresponding to its function. The large number of structural bars and tubes create "five layers of technology." Although the arrangement of the tubes on this façade does not have any apparent order, it can be seen that the blue tubes are paired; however, the existence of horizontal elements that protrude from the façade compared to the vertical ones is striking. On the south façade there are arcades that protect passers-by from the rain.

Inside

Although all the tubes and bars do not allow us to see the facades of the Pompidou, the interior is quite bright since the glazing is continuous. All the pipes and elements on the facades pass through the interior ceilings, all of these elements being visible. In this way, inside the building the same image of chaos and tangle of technological elements typical of the exterior is achieved. Renzo Piano placed a small false ceiling over each work of art to visually protect it from the network of tubes on the ceiling and prevent the eye from being distracted when contemplating the exhibited work.

Quotes about the Pompidou Center

The architect Charles Jenks") said in relation to the Center Pompidou: "*The Beaubourg presents us with the spectacle of a public that gathers en masse through the tubes of the visible façade, driven by the fetishistic desire to touch the relics of a culture born, instead, under the cover of the secrecy of transgression." Jenks defined the Pompidou as a "hedgehog cultural center." This building is the first to be exhibited by itself, showing the architecture as a spectacle playful and fun, something similar to what happens with the design of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which often overshadows the works of art it houses.