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In France, another Pompidou Center
takes shape
By Deborah Snoonian, P.E.
The brashly exposed systems of Rogers
and Piano’s original Pompidou Center in Paris captured
the attention of critics when it opened in 1977, but it’s
the draped sculptural roof of the center’s planned outpost
some 200 miles east of the City of Lights that’s getting
the wows this time around. Inspired by the shape and texture
of a woven Chinese hat he found in Paris, architect Shigeru
Ban, working with Jean de Gastines and engineers at Arup,
envisioned a free-form roof made from modular hexagonal cells
of timber, measuring about 3 feet long on each side. The resulting
mesh structure will be capable of spanning distances up to
130 feet, enabling the roof to be supported by just a few
columns near the building’s perimeter. The design team
is still finessing how exactly to build it. “It’s
an exercise somewhere between form-finding and form-making,”
says Ban. Planners hope the new Pompidou Center, slated to
open in 2008, will draw tourists to Metz, which is near the
borders of Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
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The
curvaceous roof of the new Pompidou Center (images
# 2 & 4) will be constructed of a mesh of
laminated timber and topped with a heat-reflecting,
white fiberglass waterproof coating. Three long,
rectangular exhibition galleries stacked on top
of each other terminate in glazed ends that provide
panoramic views of a new high-speed train station,
the nearby Seille Park, and the skyline of the
growing Metz region.
Images: Shigeru Ban Architects
Europe
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