Centre Pompidou, Metz: A Balance Between the Extreme and the Ordinary by Shigeru Ban Architects

Ian Mutuli
Updated on
Ian Mutuli

Ian Mutuli

Founder and Managing Editor of Archute. He is also a graduate architect from The University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Get Smarter On Architecture and Design

Get the 3-minute weekly newsletter keeping 5K+ designers in the loop.

Enter your Email to Sign up

Side-bar-footer-forum

Shigeru Ban, a trusted ally and collaborator of the late Frei Otto, is renowned worldwide for their experimental work with lightweight structures and construction materials. However, he is perhaps best known for a massive structure located in Metz, France, just over three hours from Paris: the Centre Pompidou. This structure, conceived as an offshoot of the main Centre Pompidou in Paris, extended the original Parisian museum.

Shigeru Ban has said before that the two most prevalent thoughts that led to this end product included the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Dia: Beacon in New York, USA. The client who commissioned the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, wanted a structure that would outdo itself. Something that would lead to the opening up of the whole of Bilbao to tourists.

Frank Gehry designed the Guggenheim Museum, a building that has since opened up the whole town to tourists and has led to an increase in the number of tourists by 30% year over year. Borrowing from the success of the building and its effect on tourism, the "Bilbao Effect" inference was born. On the other hand, the Dia: Beacon in New York is a perfect example of an industrial building renovated to a very neutral museum for displaying exhibition works. The architecture of the Dia: Beacon is very ordinary, but the spaces are very functional.

In designing the Centre Pompidou, Shigeru Ban wanted to seek a balance between the two extremes. There have been concerns that a building like the Guggenheim Museum is a personal monument that makes it very hard to display art and other exhibition pieces and that the whole intimidating nature of the structure doesn't consider the staff and the users at large.

People seem to be okay with Dia: Beacon because it is ordinary. Shigeru Ban thought of creating a design concept that would make it easier to display and view art as well as leave a huge impression on the visitors: the balance between two extremes.

To create functional spaces, the architect decided to stick to simple volumes. These volumes would have a very simple articulation among them, too. The general galleries with varying lengths were based on a 15-metre wide module. 3 simple square tubes with long 90-metre-deep rectangular volumes inside were created. These three tubes were stacked vertically and arranged around a hexagonal steel frame tower which contains the stairs and elevators.

The space that was created under the tiered ceilings of these three gallery tubes makes up the Grand Nef Gallery. Before this extension to the Centre Pompidou was built, the main museum could only display 20% of the entire collection available in Paris.

Therefore, the main reason for this new building was to allow the museum to display more works to the public and also be able to display the very large pieces that couldn't fit in the 5.5-metre ceiling height at the Paris Museum. To provide a solution to this problem, Shigeru Ban maintained an 18-metre ceiling height in the Grand Nef Gallery.

The project site was isolated from the city's urban centre to the North. To reconnect the building to the urban centre, the architect designed large picture windows at the ends of the three gallery tubes to collect views of the urban centre from within the galleries for users. The uppermost gallery collects views of St. Stephen's Cathedral, a symbol of Metz. The second gallery from the top collects views of the Central Station.

Metz is a French town bordering Germany. In the past, Metz has been under both governments, with Germany and France both laying claim to this city. Metz, therefore, has a very large population of Germans and French. Germany is known for its Neo-Romanesque style of architecture. Shigeru Ban used the same style in designing the new Centre Pompidou as a reminder of the city's history between the French and the Germans.

Other spaces in the building include a creation studio and a square-shaped volume containing an auditorium, offices, and other minor spaces. A restaurant was proposed on top of the creation studio and gallery tube 3, but it was cancelled because it was against the building codes in France. A restaurant at that height would be 28 metres from the ground, which is considered a high-rise building in France. It was rejected because evacuation efforts in case of emergencies would be very complex for the structure.

To connect all these volumes, including the galleries, into one whole, the architect designed a hexagonal hovering timber roof structure to unify all spaces. The architect's choice of a hexagon is justified by the fact that the French consider a hexagon a special symbol of their country because France's geographical shape is hexagonal.

According to the architect, today's architecture is increasingly distancing the general public. To continually discourage this, Shigeru Ban is creating designs that connect the inside to the outside. In this establishment, he designed the spaces so that they seem to lack walls. Buildings have always been known as such due to the existence of permanent walls that make them houses.

However, for the Centre Pompidou, the roof defines this space as a place where people are welcome to view the displayed works of art. The walls are removable since they are just glass shutters. Visitors and tourists, therefore, feel connected to the space, which, when the glass shutters are removed, feels like a part of the surrounding park.

If you're interested in exploring more remarkable architectural projects by Shigeru Ban Architects, you may want to read about Shigeru Ban’s Nine Bridges Golf Club House and Cardboard Cathedral.

Project Information

Architects: Shigeru Ban Architects
Timber Roof: Holzbau Amann, Weilheim-Bannholz (Germany)
Acoustics: Commins Acoustics workshop, Paris – Daniel Commins
Structure Consultant: Ove Arup, London – Cecil Balmond
Location: Metz, France
Site Area: 12,000 sqm
Construction Cost: €51M
Photography: Shigeru Ban Architects, David Matthiessen, Didier Boy De La Tour

Ian Mutuli

About the author

Ian Mutuli

Founder and Managing Editor of Archute. He is also a graduate architect from The University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Related Articles

Petronas Towers, the World’s Tallest Twin Towers by César Pelli

What used to be the world’s tallest towers may have been overthrown by other super skyscrapers since 2004 but the ...

Tiny Homes for Sale You Can Buy and Move-in Right Away

Two decades back, if someone had suggested that we could purchase homes online, we likely would have dismissed the idea. ...

Tosin Dada Studios Rejuvenates Egbeda Community Centre, Nigeria

A derelict structure in the Egbeda community in Nigeria was left strewn of its architectural dignity by time. The client ...