Centre Georges Pompidou

The Centre national d' art et de culture Georges Pompidou, also colloquially Centre Pompidou or Beaubourg, lightheartedly La refinery by the locals, is a public art and cultural center in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, at the initiative of former French President Georges Pompidou was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini and opened after a five -year construction period on 31 January 1977.

Function

The Centre Pompidou is to French citizens as well as foreigners from all walks of guarantee free access to knowledge. It houses the Musée National d' Art Moderne ( MNAM, Museum of Modern Art, whose rooms Gae Aulenti 1982-1985 redesigned ) with important works of art of the 20th century, where a center for industrial design is connected, the library Bibliothèque Publique d ' information ( BPI) with over 400,000 media, and 2000 reading places, the music research center IRCAM ( Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique ), a children's workshop, cinema, theater and lecture theaters, a bookshop, a restaurant and a coffee shop.

The first branch of the Centre Pompidou- Metz in the Lorraine capital was opened in May 2010. The building was designed by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban.

History

Even André Malraux had as culture minister under President Charles de Gaulle 's intention to establish a representative museum of art from the 20th century instead of the inadequate and little-visited the Palais de Tokyo. This intention was shared by de Gaulle's successor, Georges Pompidou. This also wanted to strengthen inter alia, the role of Paris as an international art capital against New York.

A second root of the new construction was due to the increasingly urgent need to relieve the old National Library in Paris, and to create a large reference library in the city center.

Only after December 11, 1969, the official decision had been made for the construction of a new museum of modern art, it was decided to combine it with the also structurally necessary library. After February 1970, the union of the two projects was decided it came quickly for labeling of the architectural competition, the jury's decision of 15 July 1971, the Piano / Rogers project and subsequently to the construction, on 31 January 1977 by Pompidou successor, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was opened. As the undisputed building site, the area is no longer needed after the resettlement of the wholesale market of Les Halles as a truck parking lot of the plateau Beaubourg in the 4th district of Paris, was available. The former Quartier Saint - Merri, a insalubre been because of poor hygiene officially to demolish certain old quarter, was eliminated in 1906 as Ilot already in the 1930s and become an inner city wasteland.

Architecture

The structure and pipes for building and development were visibly disposed on the exterior schemes. The carriage (stairs, escalators) red, Electrical yellow, blue water pipes and the pipes of the air conditioner, the structure and the ventilation pipes are painted white, green. Thus, the great land in the interior remain largely free of restraints and are therefore flexible in use. While the pipes of the building run largely on the east side ( " back " ), ( "front" ) is located on the west side of a partially red covered escalator, which runs diagonally across the entire facade.

This new facade type and its design were controversial to the creation time. Many contemporaries were reminded to factories and found the architecture as inappropriate in terms of location and use. The building is seen as a first significant separation from the architectural discourse between modernism and postmodernism. Intended were height-adjustable floors and a large facade screen as an interface between the museum and city in the competition design. Lack of money you refrained.

Surroundings

The squares in the west and south of the building often occur street performers. In the south, also designed by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely Stravinsky Fountain located. The Forum des Halles and Hôtel de Ville are located a few blocks away.

Trivia

Back in 1978, the Centre Pompidou was for the shooting of the James Bond film Moonraker - Streng used secret. The pedestrian tube was part of the scene in which James Bond first meets Holly Goodhead, and should be in the film, Drax Research represent.

By 1996, at the Centre Pompidou a large countdown clock called Le GENITRON was attached, the down counted the seconds until 2000. When the Centre was closed shortly before the year 2000 due to renovations, we moved the clock to the Eiffel Tower.