Archive photography from the offices of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers shows the dramatic inside-out form of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which is celebrating its 40th birthday.
One of the most famous examples of the high-tech style, the Centre Pompidou was assembled from a kit of huge prefabricated steel parts. Image courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop
One of the most famous examples of the high-tech style, the Centre Pompidou was assembled from a kit of huge prefabricated steel parts.
Over 15,000 tonnes of steel were used in the construction, including a network of ten-tonne gerberettes that define the building's outward-facing appearance.
The building's technical guts expressed externally and colour coded in a bid to keep the floorplan of each of its ten storeys column-free. Image courtesy Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners The Pompidou's famed inside-out approach sees its colour-coded technical guts expressed externally, in a bid to keep the floorplan of each of its ten storeys column-free.
Blue marks air-conditioning pipework, yellow is for electrics, green denotes water pipes, and red highlights tubular escalators and elevators.
"The centre is like a huge spaceship made of glass, steel and coloured tubing that landed unexpectedly in the heart of the Paris, and where it would very quickly set deep roots," said Piano of the building, which is situated in the French capital's Beaubourg area.
The externalised services are colour-coded blue, red, green...