The George Pompidou Center

● The George Pompidou Center is built between 1970 and 1977.

It’s a home to books the art and contemporary creation on the death of General de
Gaulle in 1969, Georges Pompidou became the president of France. One of his first
decisions was to give Paris a unique cultural center which would include a Modern Art
Museum a huge public library a Design Centre and an Institution of Contemporary Music
for great institutions United in the same building in the center of the capitol.

● In 1930, the area known as Babur was cleared of its slump locks leaving an 18,000
square metre open space which in the 60s became a massive car park. It was the ideal
spot for pompiduo’s project. architects Oscar Niemeyer Jean proved a and Philip
Johnson made up the jury which would choose from 681 entries there was everything a
metallic domed roof lopsided blocks a high tower but only one project number 493
planned to use only half of the space available leaving the rest as a forecourt it was the
project of two young unknown foreign architects Richard Rogers who was English .
● Gustav II fell during the building of his tower oil refinery hangar scrap metal monstrosity
and insult to good taste this structure covered in bright colored metal literally erupted in
the center of old Paris the eruption was set off by Archie Graham a group of English
architects who were school pals of Rogers and piano they hadn't built much before but
they were prolific drawers their notion of architecture was inspired by offshore oil rigs
NASA launch pads and science fiction it was flexible transformable mobile light and
playful Archie Graham did not set out to provoke they just wanted to continue the great
British tradition of building with metals only in France where concrete was the king at
the Pompidou Center iunderground
● it lays three storeys deep beneath the whole surface area both centre and forecourt and
it contains the carpark and sound proved concert halls and as for concrete that's it
above-ground the structure is really a giant Meccanoa huge building set take a steel
column then a second on each column place a pivoting steel capital called azure Barret
join the columns with a largecross beam the structure is unstable but attach a metal tie
rod from the end of the jibber ATS to the ground and the system becomes a stable
portico that is always visible inside and out in order to support the weight of the floors
reinforcements are added to the facades these reinforcements are X or v-shaped and
are fixed between the cross beams or the ends of the jibber ads to oversee structural
engineering points such as balance and the shape of the cross beams these two
superimposed layers on the frame of the building give it its somewhat industrial image
visitors move through a transparent tube resembling a fairground ride facing the
forecourt is the fair facing the street is the factory the eastern facade is made up of the
building entrails the huge loading elevators air conditioning and electric cables .
● they're built with a bare necessity this is a little bleeplike a machine the center produces
and like a machine the finished goods are more beautiful than the center itself the
pompidou machine produces space naked space by placing the walkways and functional
systems outside the architects have freed all of the interior space each level is an
immense empty space the size of two football pitches 7,500 square meters with no
columns no pipes no stairs and no walls with the exception of fire screens imposed by
regulations which run the whole length of the building on each level lowered if necessary
 The George Pompidou Center
● from the ceiling to the floor the only enclosed places meaning where there are four walls
in the ceiling are the toilets and several offices which are actually just pour two cabins
mobile and easily fixed onto metal frames in the ceiling the absence of interior structure
was the perfect answer to George Pompidou Stalin JH to make a building where totally
different cultural forms could coexist peacefully the permanent collections and temporary
exhibitions of the Museum of Modern Art and the Design Centre and the public
information library not to mention the offices of the museum's and the center to build a
monument of culture is difficult enough when you're 50 as a 30 year old it's impossible.

● George Pompidou Center has surpassed its instigators wildest dreams it receives 25
thousand people per day and is the most visited building in Paris far out doing tourist
attractions like the Eiffel Tower in the Louvre but the building is a victim of its own
success and will enter the new millennium with two years of renovation will it be able to
keep its double identity and go on being both a monument to public power and a
generous friendly city within a city.