Centre Pompidou : Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and the making of a modern monument
The Centre Georges Pompidou, also called Beaubourg, is today considered an icon of contemporary Paris, the quintessence of a modern building, and a model for what a museum should be. In 1971, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, together with the engineering firm Ove Arup & Partners, won an international architecture competition with their innovative and irreverent design for the building. Completed in 1977, the building was at first received skeptically by critics, yet it was quickly embraced by the public as a beloved monument of the modern city of Paris-a status it still holds 40 years later. Eminent historian Francesco Dal Co explores the building's history and the reasons for its success, beginning with its genesis in Georges Pompidou's response to Paris's turbulent student protests of May 1968. After tracing the building's political context, Dal Co considers its intellectual roots and the solutions used in its construction. Design elements and engineering techniques dating as far back as the 19th century allow the Centre Pompidou to appear modern while simultaneously channeling architectural memory, connecting it powerfully to Paris's historic urban fabric. This essential text on one of the 20th century's most significant buildings is accompanied by a portfolio of drawings and photographs, many of which have never before been featured in an English-language publication
Print Book, English, 2017
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Yale University Press, New Haven, 2017
Designs and plans
ix, 156 pages : illustrations (some color), plans ; 24 cm
9780300221299, 0300221290
1082538975
"A short version of this essay appeared as "Beaubourg" in Francesco Dal Co, Renzo Piano, published in Italian by Electa, Milan, in 2014, and was translated into English by Steve Piccolo."--Title page verso