Centre Pompidou – Metz (CPM), France

France's first Pompidou Centre outside Paris will open in the city of Metz, eastern France, in 2009. The new centre was designed by Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA) (Tokyo) in association with Jean de Gastines (Paris) and Gumuchdjian Architects (London).

The €35m centre, with an overall floor area of some 12,500m² offering 6,000m² of exhibition space, will house permanent and temporary exhibitions and is expected to open up access for people from across Europe to the exceptional scope and quality of the collections from the Musée National d'Art Moderne presently housed in the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The architects describe the project as "providing a new type of public institution that can grow and transform itself according to climate or occasion." During a presentation to the public and media in October 2008, it was made clear that the centre will not be an antenna or an annexe to the Pompidou Centre in Paris but a sister institution in its own right.

The construction of the Centre Pompidou – Metz is co-financed by the French state, the European Union, the Lorraine region and the Moselle department.

Centre Pompidou planning

It was in January 2003 that The Pompidou Centre, Paris, and the City of Metz announced the decision to build the new Pompidou Centre; to be officially known as 'Centre Pompidou – Metz' (CPM). This was followed in March 2003 by the launching of an international design competition which attracted 157 architects.

By the end of May 2003 a shortlist of six teams had been selected comprising: 1) Foreign Office Architects, London; 2) Shigeru Ban, Tokyo, with Jean de Gastines, Paris, and Gumuchdjian Architects, London; 3) Herzog & de Meuron, Bâle; 4) Stéphane Maupin and Pascal Cribier, Paris; 5) NOX Architekten, Rotterdam; and 6) Dominique Perrault, Paris.

In December 2003 the Shigeru team was officially awarded the design contract. The final draft of the design was presented in June 2005 and planning permission was received in September 2005. The tendering process then began for the construction and services. In June 2006 the tendering process was complete and all contractors were in place ready for the construction to begin.

Shigeru Ban is well-known for its Museum of Paper in Shizuoka and for having been one of the unselected finalists in the 2002 competition to redevelop Ground Zero in New York. In the autumn of 2004, the architect firm set up a temporary studio on the sixth floor of the Centre Pompidou in Paris to house the team for the duration of the project. This studio was built using the same 'paper tube structure' that the architects had already used to build the Japan Pavilion at the Hannover 2000 Expo.

The foundation stone for the Metz Pompidou Centre was laid on Tuesday 7 November 2006. The inauguration of the new Pompidou Centre in Metz was due to be in 2008 following the opening of the new Metz-Paris high-speed train service on the TGV Est Européen line in June 2007 but is now on track to open to the public in 2009.

However, the centre has run a number of project showcases to keep the public up to date with the architectural developments and designs as they have been unfolding. Models, plans and pictures in a visitor centre offer the public an entertaining and educational way to decipher the emblematic architecture.

This project showcase centre, Maison Du Project, has already attracted 58,000 visitors and was also designed by Shigeru Ban. The aesthetic of this build is also highly original. It has two containers at either end that define the outline and support the roof and another two support posts in an upside-down V at the entrance. The use of simple and cheap materials underscores the temporary nature of the structure.

Contractors

The design team includes the landscape architect Michel Desvigne, recipient of the Medal of the French Academy of Architecture in 2000, who worked on the Dallas Centre for the Performing Arts Foundation in 2003. Arup Engineers, which also worked on the original Pompidou Centre, will prepare the structural and services designs. Ingo Maurer (Munich, Germany) will be the lighting designer, and DLE (France) the quantity surveyors.

In September 2005 the French Ministry of Equipment's Scientific and Technical Construction Centre (CSTB) in Nantes carried out tests on models of the new Pompidou centre in their Jules Verne wind tunnel and developed projections of the structures resistance to snow and wind.

Centre Pompidou site

The centre will consist of a large pavilion set within a new 28,165m² parkland on a brown-field site (the new Amphithéâtre district) approximately 100m from Metz railway station.

The Amphithéâtre district covers the site of an old freight station and is located in a key area for Metz traffic, commanding two compulsory passageways under the railway towards the city centre and enabling a new southern entrance to the train station. With the launch of the TGV est Européen high-speed train line, it will become a major point of entry and will support the Centre Pompidou – Metz.

Design and architecture

The building is a modular structure, designed around a central spire rising 77m above ground. Half of its 10,000m² will be dedicated to the presentation of works (galleries, main nave, studio), while additional areas can be used for exhibits as well.

Three rectangular, climate-controlled, steel truss, cantilevered tubes, each measuring 80m long by 15m wide, will form the basis of the three pillarless galleries for the permanent collections and will be sited so as to frame views of the city's historic monuments, such as its railway station and cathedral. The only windows will be each end of the galleries, thus emphasising the importance of the internal lighting.

The scheme offers the curators a broad range of flexible spaces and lighting opportunities. Circulation between galleries is expected to provide the visitor with a dramatic experience and a sharp contrast to the cool gallery spaces within.

Situated beneath the three rectangular tubes is the forum for the temporary exhibitions. The whole forum will be encased with movable glass shutters that can close off the forum from, or open it up to, the surrounding gardens. Enormous curtains will reduce the natural light as required.

The floor of the public forum is cooled and warmed using recirculated ground water while the large forum space is cooled and warmed by recirculating the tempered air of the gallery spaces.

CPM forum and roof

The forum will give direct access to a 144-seat auditorium and to the creative studio, a circular multi-purpose building used for both shows for up to 200 people and for exhibitions.

To reach the upper floors visitors will be able to use the stairs or two lifts in the vertical tower, which will lead to the restaurant cafeteria with its terrace on the roof of the creative studio and then to the three successive exhibition galleries.

The centre's most interesting feature will be the polytetrafluoroethylene roof – a huge, translucent, hexagonal, lattice membrane 'thrown' over and covering the entire complex. Inspiration for this structure is said to have come from a Muak Kui, the traditional, woven bamboo Chinese hat.

The Chinese hat

However, not only will the roof be the centre's most unusual feature, it is also likely to present the designers and contractors with the most difficulties. The roof will be made up of modular elements, hexagons with 2.9m sides, which are assembled like a cloth. The structure is made of three layers of a special glue-laminated timber, making it highly resistant and enabling uncommon lengths.

Shigeru Ban Architects, along with Arup Engineers, is working very closely with Japanese membrane manufacturer Taiyo Kogy (Tokyo) on a suitable production and construction procedure for the roof. (Incidentally, Taiyo Kogy constructed the membrane roof for five of the six Japanese stadiums which had membrane roofs used during the 2002 FIFA World Cup.)

The large overhanging roof protects the facades from the weather in winter and provides shade in the summer. The roof will be shaped to shelter from the cold northerly winds in winter and to encourage the cooling breezes from the south in summer.

Additional CPM facilities

Additional facilities will include a large waterside pavilion cafe integrated into the parkland, a roof-top restaurant, cinema and a large multi-purpose creative workshop.

The overall emphasis of the design is on creating a building that is in harmony with its parkland environment that clearly expresses openness and accessibility.

A project showcase centre, which is open to the public, has been set up in the Amphithéâtre district adjacent to the construction site to provide information on the project's progress.

Centre Pompidou-Metz opening

The entry fee for the centre will be in the region of €5-€10 and in its first five years of opening it plans to attract between 250,000 and 300,000 visitors each day. The inaugural exhibition at the centre will be 'Chefs-d'oeuvre' which will be followed by another exhibition, entitled 'Constellations' in May 2009. Both of these have been chosen with the aim of making Metz one of the most important cultural centers in Europe and drawing tourism to the region.

At a presentation on 9 October 2008 Alain Seban, President of the Centre Pompidou stressed the importance of the project. "The Centre Pompidou - Metz represents a strong commitment and a significant challenge. As a social and cultural project it typifies the Centre Pompidou's fresh strategic approach, with a renewed focus on its fundamental vocation to serve as a platform for exchange between society at large and the contemporary arts scene."