Centre Georges Pompidou

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Centre Georges Pompidou

Building
Type Culture and Leisure
Architectural Style Postmodern / High-Tech
Structural System Steel superstructure with reinforced concrete floors
Location Paris, France
Construction
Completed 1977
Design Team
Architect Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers
Structural engineer Ove Arup & Partners
Services engineer Ove Arup & Partners

Centre Georges Pompidou (constructed 1971–1977 and known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the IVe arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles and the Marais.

It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, who was president of France from 1969 to 1974, and was opened on 31 December 1977.

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[edit] Architecture

The Centre was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the British architect couple Richard Rogers and Sue Rogers, the British structural engineer Edmund Happold (who would later found Buro Happold) and Irish structural engineer Peter Rice. The project was awarded to this team in an architectural design competition, whose results were announced in 1971. Reporting on Rogers' winning the Pritzker Prize in 2007, the New York Times noted that the design of the Centre "turned the architecture world upside down" and that "Mr. Rogers earned a reputation as a high-tech iconoclast with the completion of the 1977 Pompidou Center, with its exposed skeleton of brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems. The Pompidou 'revolutionized museums, for water'"[1].

Centre Georges Pompidou Paris Elevation
Centre Georges Pompidou Paris Elevation

[edit] Construction

The Centre was built by GTM and completed in 1977[2].

[edit] Stravinsky Fountain

La Sirène
La Sirène

The nearby Stravinsky Fountain (also called the Fontaine des automates), features works by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle.

Video footage of the fountain appeared frequently throughout the French language telecourse, French in Action.


[edit] Place Georges Pompidou

The Place Georges Pompidou in front of the museum is noted for the presence of street performers, such as mimes and jugglers. In the spring miniature carnivals are installed temporarily into the place in front with a *wide* variety of attractions; bands, tables set up for evening dining, and even skate boarding competitions.

[edit] Public transport

[edit] Gallery

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links