Winning design
Shigeru Ban
Jean de Gastines & Philip Gumuchdjian
Centre Pompidou - Metz
Metz, France
At a Press Conference on December 4, the project by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, in association with Jean de Gastines, Paris and Philip Gumuchdjian of London, was announced as the winning design in the International competition for the new Centre Pompidou - Metz, France.
The Pompidou Center and the City of Metz in eastern France announced the decision in january 2003, in agreement with the Ministry for the Arts, Culture & Communications, to set up the first decentralized branch of the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Metz.
The setting-up of such a Center in Metz is a novel venture in cultural decentralization by a national institution. It will inject vital and hitherto scarce lifeblood into a region which had little infrastructure of note in the field of modern and contemporary visual arts and will constitute an institution of international scope.
The Center, consisting of three galleries in a rectangular blocks, is covered by a huge tensile structure. The membrane, of hexagonal modules, is made of translucent glass fibre covered in teflon.
The creation of the Metz site will enable a new threshold to be crossed in the Pompidou Center's policy, initiated in 1997 during its renovation works, for cultural diffusion outside Paris.
The Metz project intends to be living proof of an ambitious example of decentralization which will strengthen regional roles.
The fact of setting up such an institution in Metz, close to Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, will also enhance the institution's artistic influence within Europe.
Alongside the high-speed TGV project linking Paris to Eastern Europe, proximity to the borders with other countries makes Metz an ideal pole of attraction for visitors from Eastern and Northern Europe. The new Center will open up access to the exceptional scope and quality of collections from the Musée National d¹Art Moderne kept in the Pompidou Center.
Total area: 12,000 m2 for 6,000 square meters
Exhibition space: 6,000 square meters
The new institution will also comprise public reception halls and areas for cinema showings, performances, conferences, a bookshop, a restaurant and a cafeteria.
Opening of the Centre Pompidou-Metz is planned for 2007.
Shigeru Ban, joined forces with French architect Jean de Gastines and Philip Gumuchdjian of London, for the competition.
Shigeru Ban is well-known in particular for the Museum of Paper in Shizuoka and for having been one of the unselected finalists in the 2002 competition for the new World Trade Center in New York. Other works include the Japanese Pavillion at the 2000 Universal Exhibition in Hanover and the model for the temporary shelter for the High Commission for Refugees at the United Nations.
The winning project along with the 5 finalists will be on view under the peristyle of the Town Hall of Metz until the beginning of the next year. They will also be shown at the Pompidou Center in Paris on a date which will be specified later on.
The five finalists:
Herzog & de Meuron, Basel
Stéphane Maupin and Pascal Cribier, Paris
Foreign Office Architects (FOA), London
Dominique Perrault, Paris
Chaired by Mr. Jean-Marie Rausch, Mayor of Metz, the jury was composed of a college of elected officials of the community of agglomeration of Metz Métropole, of a college of qualified personalities, among which the President of the National Center of Art and Culture George Pompidou, Bruno Racine, and of a college of architects.
December 15, 2003
Shigeru Ban arcspace features