Centre Pompidou Metz

Shigeru Ban Architects + Jean de Gastines Architects

Metz, Parvis des Droits de l’Homme 1

2003 – 2010

Shigeru Ban in Metz

There are some architects I’ve followed since I was a student. This includes Zaha Hadid and Shigeru Ban. Since 2016 there is a building in Antwerp by Zaha Hadid Architects: the Port House and currently a (partly) wooden skyscraper is being built by Shigeru Ban!

When traveling, we always look at which buildings can be discovered in the area. I have already been able to view several buildings from Hadid, but there are far fewer of Shigeru Ban’s in Europe. On a trip to Luxembourg, we set aside a day for Center Pompidou Metz. I had seen the building once, behind yard cloths, it was being built at the time. Now I could finally take a look inside.

Centre Pompidou

In 2003, a competition was launched for a new satellite of the Center Pompidou in Paris. 157 architectural firms from all over the world registered. 6 were chosen by a jury, including the president of the Center Pompidou and architect Richard Rogers, to further develop their concept. In addition to the winners Shigeru Ban Architects and Jean de Gastines Architects, the following firms were also selected in this round:

• Stéphane Maupin and Pascal Cribier, Paris
• Herzog & de Meuron, Basel
• Foreign Office Architects (FOA), London and uapS, Paris
• Nox Architekten, Rotterdam
• Dominique Perrault, Paris

Jean de Gastines collaborates with Shigeru Ban for all European projects. To honor the original building in Paris, the height of the central pylon is exactly 77 meters. The Center Pompidou in Paris, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, opened in February 1977.

Powerful and light at one and the same time, inviting us to take shelter under its protective roof, we imagined an architecture that translates openness, the mixing of cultures and well-being, in an immediate and sensory relationship with the environment.

(Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, architects of the Centre Pompidou-Metz)

Roof construction and three galleries

The hexagonal museum consists of 3 galleries, actually 3 large beams, over which a tent construction is stretched. The roof of 8000 m² consists of hexagonal laminated wooden modules and is based on a Chinese hat. This construction ensures that 40 meters can be spanned each time and that not so many supports are needed. The spruce wood for the frame and larch wood for the posts both come from Germany. The white membrane that covers everything consists of fiberglass and Teflon.

The three galleries or beams of 80 meters in length are placed crosswise on top of each other. At the end of the beams are large windows with a beautiful view of the city of Metz and the surrounding area. The beams are made of concrete and there are no columns on the inside, so that the museum has more freedom for the construction of exhibitions. The space under the roof, outside the galleries, is also used for exhibitions. There is a restaurant (closed during our visit), 2 large multi-purpose rooms and a café (small, but nice to sit). The PTS is located outside, near the café. This Paper Tube Studio was placed here in 2020, on the occasion of the museum’s 10th anniversary. It spent some time in Paris, on the roof of Center Pompidou and now it stays here permanently. Workshops are organized in it.