“I am not just a museum or a library: I am a living and breathing cultural machine.” This is how the Centre Pompidou “self-describes” itself. Paris in the documentary Cathedrals of Culture (2014). And it will continue to be so even after the renovation project planned for the 50th anniversary, awarded through a competition to the group formed by the French Moreau Kusunoki agency with the study of the Mexican Frida Escobedo and engineering support from AIA Life Designers.
The Parisian museum closed And expected in September 2025 after the major summer exhibition by Wolfgang Tillmans (opening in June next year) which will cover 6,000 m² of the art center. It will then reopen in 2030, the date of completion of the works.
The characteristics of the intervention
Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunokihusband and wife, have already distinguished themselves in the field of museum projects for the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki (2015) and for Powerhouse Parramatta in Sydney currently under construction; Escobedofor its part, signed the renovation of the Hotel Boca Chica (2008), the expansion of La Tallera Siqueiros in Cuernavaca (2012) and achieved global recognition after the prestigious 2018 Serpentine Pavilion commission in London’s Kensington Gardens.
Il Centre Pompidou will be subjected to what is called a respectful conservative restorationwhich includes a system update and a reorganization of the spaces with a multidisciplinary approach. The project team will get its hands on a a true masterpiece with the intent of an intervention that will leave the current architecture of the building is almost intactwithout any additional construction or expansion, a decision also taken with an eye to eco-responsibility. A wise choice, similar to that made by the English Pritzker Prize winner David Chipperfield for the New National Gallery designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe a Berlin.
The aim of the Parisian project is based on theOptimizing available space in new cultural and community spaceswith a more rational and simple use based on a clear and legible plan, oriented towards a more fluid experience for everyone, especially for new visitors. A new potential for the spaces that will be freed both physically and visually. Another purpose is to give new transparency to the museum and allow natural light to reach its innermost spaces (the opaque fireproof membrane curtains on the façade will be replaced with glass), together with the idea of greater permeability with the city right into the heart of the building. In particular, the entrance area (Forum) will be connected more efficiently to the underground level (Agora). This will create an internal square to welcome the public along the lines of that of the Tate Modern or the Design Museum in London, developed on the height of three levels.
On the first floor instead there will be space for the New Generation hub dedicated to education and the little ones while in the second there will be the Public Information Library (Public Information Library) with a new seating system that can be configured for maximum usability. The exhibition spaces on the three upper floors (levels 4, 5 and 6) will be completely redesigned while the terrace with the rooftop café will remain intact.
Even the bookshop, boutique and restaurant spaces will be made more permeable to increase internal circulation. Finally, work will also be done in the external space where Studio Brancusi is located (the atelier with the work of the Romanian artist designed in 1997 by Renzo Piano), two of the fundamental elements of the museum. The public space will be redeveloped as a place of rest, to organize the flow of visitors and the various activities of the Center; lo Brancusi Studio to be refurbished and its contents moved inside to make room for the Research and Resource Center and the Kandinsky Library.
From Museum to Myth, the History of the Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou was designed and submitted for the competition by a group formed by the British Richard Rogers and from ours Renzo Piano e Gianfranco Franchini (who then stepped aside), while the international jury that chose him was composed of sacred monsters of architecture of the calibre of Philip Johnson, Oscar Niemeyer, with president Jean Prouvé. The engineering study is due to another star, the famous Ove Arup who at the time was completing the Sydney Opera House.
From the day of his inaugurationJanuary 31st 1977the center has often been mistreated and associated in a derogatory way with an oil refinery, a giant climbing frame, a gothic steel cathedral, a spaceship and so on. After all, it is the same feeling that has been stirred since the beginning by another symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. Whatever you think about it, “le Pompidou” (or Beaubourg depending on whether you identify it with the name of the neighborhood) is always a visionary project for an experimental spaceincubator of a new democratized concept of culture, which remains today one of the most emblematic buildings of the twentieth century.
If the museum space exists today, it is thanks to the then Prime Minister Jacques Chirac That he defended him staunchly. And obviously, before him, to the man who wanted it and whose name it bears, that Georges Pompidoupresident of France in 1969, who never managed to see it realized because he died during his term in office in 1974, three years before the inauguration.
Throughout its history, the Centre Pompidou has also been a protagonist in the cinema. Shortly after its opening, it was used as the setting for Moonraker (1979), one of the films of James Bondin which the French museum was transformed into the space shuttle construction plant of billionaire Hugo Drax (the secret agent in that case was played by Roger Moore). To quell the criticism, a documentary was first made for which he was chosen Roberto Rosselliniconsidered the inspiration of the Nouvelle Vague, much loved in France. Beaubourgthis is the title of the film that tells the story of the first days of opening in early ’77 and was the last film by the Italian master who died in June of the same year.
Colors and numbers
It is known that the colours of the exposed pipes of the Centre Pompidou follow a precise code: yellow for electricity, red for mobility of elevators and escalators, green for water, blue for ventilation. But at the beginning the building had to have the color of the Eiffel Towerwith the rust-pink effect considered unattractive. The silver of the suspended metro was also considered, but the result would have been too flashy. In the end, Piano and Rogers decided: “Since it is an industrial building, we will use industrial color coding.”
The “Centre Pompidou 2030”, the name of the new project, is thus an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent one of France’s major cultural institutions. Its (current) numbers are impressive and set to increase: 15,000 tons of steel and 11,000 square meters of glass were needed to create its pioneering structure; the building extends over 10 floors, 7 above ground and three underground, each of 7,500 m², providing 12,210 m² for the exhibition of the collection of 140,000 works of the National Museum of Modern Art and 5,900 m² for temporary exhibitions. Inside, there are also two cinemas (315 and 144 seats), a performance space (384 seats), a conference room (158 seats) and 10,400 m² of public library. In the area of the center, in addition to the Atelier Brancusi, there is also the IRCAM – Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, the Institute for Music, also designed by Renzo Piano.
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