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The Centre Georges Pompidou is a major modern art gallery. It is also home to a public reference library, a Forum
area, sculpture terrace, cinema and performance halls, and a bookshop, cafs and a restaurant. All are arranged
over six levels including a basement. The building is rectangular in plan and occupies half the area of the site the
other half is a public piazza, which is also home to the re-sited studio of sculptor Constantin Brancusi.

form
The structure forms a permanent steel grid providing a stable framework, into which the moveable parts including walls and
floors can be inserted, dismantled and re-positioned as necessary. The components and connections are of a scale rarely
seen in the construction industry massive steel elements were fabricated in off-site foundries and delivered by truck to the
site during the night.
The superstructure consists of thirteen bays, six floors high, constructed of 16,000 tons of cast and prefabricated steel with
reinforced concrete floor sections. The two main structural support planes comprise a series of 800mm (31.5 inch) diameter
spun steel hollow columns, each of which supports six gerberettes, or brackets.
One end of each gerberette is connected to an outer tension column, while the other supports a steel lattice beam. The
stability of the building is achieved through diagonal bracing in the long facades and by stabilised end frames.
The cladding is a curtain wall of steel and glass, mixing glazed and solid metal panels hung from the floor above to keep
them structurally separate from the facades, and therefore easily changed. The line of the cladding is kept back from the
edge of the building, allowing plenty of space for human interaction, while lending the building an open and transparent
appearance.

material
technological innovation

complicated details

construction
The Centre Pompidou broke the mold with its 'inside out' construction: the steel skeleton from which the
floors are suspended dominantly visible from the outside, together with the giant external escalators, with
the color-coded service ducts exposed on both the inside and out. Now that the fact of these
appearances is no longer shocking, attention focus on how they are done. Twenty years, on the escalator
remains a phenomenon, and the plaza continues to thrive, but the exhibition spaces themselves, and the
rather dry, regular block shape of the overall building, are beginning to come across as almost a little dull.

Urban Context
A further important element was the architect's intention to create a meeting space not only for the art lover, but also
for the local residents. The large slightly sloped paved piazza in front of the building fulfills this role introducing the

high-tech structure of the building to its traditional surrundings and Paris street life. On hi website Richard Rogers
notes that "Pompidou proves that modernity and tradition can profitably interact and enhance historic cities."

Building Structure
The building was designed on the lines of an "evolving spatial diagram" in two parts: firstly, a 3-level infrastructure
housing the technical facilities and service areas; secondly, a vast 7-level glass and steel superstructure, including a
terrace and mezzanine floor, concentrating most of the centre's areas of activity. The building's metal framework has
14 porticos with 13 bays, each spanning 48 m and standing 12.8 m apart. On top of the posts, on each level, are
moulded steel beam hangers, measuring 8 m in length and weighing 10 tonnes. 45 m long girders rest on the beam
hangars, which spread stress through the posts and are balanced by tie-beams anchored on cross-bars. Each storey
is 7 m high floor-to-floor. The glass and steel superstructure envelops the free open spaces.

The Centre Pompidou houses a museum of modern art, reference library, industrial design centre, temporary
exhibition space, childrens library and art centre, audio-visual research centre (IRCAM) and restaurants. It underwent
renovation from 1996 to 1999 and reopened on January 1st 2000. In 2010 an extension to the Centre Pompidou
designed by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban opened as the Centre Pompidou Metz in the west of France.

Rogers' and Piano's concept for the Centre Pompidou drew major influences from the works
of Cedric Price who experimented in the 1960s with open forms and flexible spaces. To
maximize internal space, they turned the construction inside-out and exposed a skeleton of
brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems. The ducts on the outside of the building are
colour-coded: blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electricity cables and red for movement
and flow (elevators, stairs) and safety (fire extinguishers). As with Price's Fun Palace, an unbuilt
project, the priority was to maximise functional movement and flow, freeing up internal space
and facilitating the interaction between different disciplines.

The principle of its design is to provide as much open flexible space in the interior as possible. To that
end, most of the structure, circulation and servicing is pushed to the exterior, largely on the long
elevations. The basic disposition is straightforward. The east-facing side facing the piazza is a circulation
zone, with a full-width run of escalators and walkways enclosed in transparent tubes. The west-facing
side on rue de Renard is a mechanical services zone, smothered in colour-coded ducts, pipework, goods
lifts and fire stairs. The zone in between inside the building is for art.