Centre Pompidou Case Study: Structure, Services and Open Floors (Piano and Rogers)

The Centre Pompidou is a public library, modern art museum and arts centre in central Paris, designed by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini with the engineers Ove Arup & Partners, and inaugurated on 31 January 1977. It puts its structure, pipes and escalators on the outside so that every floor inside is one open, column-free room. It has been closed for renovation since September 2025.

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Centre Pompidou history: the brief and the client

The idea came from Georges Pompidou. The Centre's own chronology of the Beaubourg project says the project was launched in 1969. In 1972 he said he wanted Paris to have a centre that would be "both a museum and a centre of creation" (our translation of the chronology's quote).

The programme joined institutions planned separately. The Centre's teaching page on spaces and uses says a public library sited on the Plateau Beaubourg in 1968 was joined in 1970 to the planned national museum of modern art. In 1970 Pompidou also added Ircam, a music research centre under Pierre Boulez, in its own building next door, also by Piano.

The international competition followed. The Centre's page on architects and engineers gives 681 candidates; Arup adds that they came from 49 countries, and that the jury was chaired by Jean Prouvé and included Philip Johnson, Jørn Utzon and Oscar Niemeyer. Arup says it encouraged Rogers and Piano to enter. In the Centre's Pompidou+ magazine (2023), Séverine Pierron writes that the brief waived central Paris's 28 m height limit and that the winners, entry no. 493, were announced at the Grand Palais on 19 July 1971 after a jury vote of eight to one.

The Centre names three winners: Piano (born 1937), Rogers (born 1933) and Franchini, who adapted the project to its programme. Pierron also names Ted Happold of Arup at the competition stage. The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) project page lists the Arup team as P. Rice, L. Grut, R. Pierce and T. Barker, and the main contractor as GTM.

Site and context: the Plateau Beaubourg

The Centre's chronology says the old houses here were classed as "insanitary block no. 1" in 1894 and demolished in 1937, after which the Plateau Beaubourg served as a car park. Rue Saint-Martin runs along its west side.

RPBW describes a two-hectare site on the edge of the Marais. The winning entry put the building on only half of it and left the rest as an open square, which the Centre's teaching page says refers to the sloping Piazza del Campo in Siena. RPBW says the piazza slopes down to the entrance hall, and gives the building ten floors, seven above ground and three below. For a site analysis sheet, draw the dense old grain around the block, the car park, and the 1977 split between square and building.

Centre Pompidou architecture: the concept

The concept was a building that could change. The Centre quotes Piano: "Each level is therefore completely free and usable, for any form of known or future cultural activity", and also, on the piazza face, "we grouped together all the facilities for visitor flow" (both from the Centre's page on the building). The Pompidou+ article on the pipes (Hugo Trutt, 6 October 2025) quotes Rogers: "An easily modifiable building has a longer lifespan and uses its resources more efficiently" (our translation). Arup describes its engineering response as an "inside-out machine-age building".

The competition scheme also had a façade of live information screens, hence the working name "Live Centre of Information" (Pierron); the Centre says the screens were dropped for technical reasons.

Centre Pompidou floor plan and zoning

Read the plan as three bands running the length of the building:

1. The piazza face (west). Lifts, the escalator in its glass tube and the walkways hang outside the columns, according to RPBW. The Centre calls the escalator "the caterpillar" and says it is the main route to all levels.
2. The open floor. Between the two column lines each floor is clear of columns. The Centre's structure and modules page gives six open floors of more than 7,000 sq m, each 45 m wide and 7 m high, with the Forum level 10 m high.
3. The street face (east). The ducts and pipes for air, water and power run up this side. RPBW calls it the Rue Beaubourg façade; the Centre's chronology and Pompidou+ name the street rue du Renard.

Uses were stacked by level. The Centre's teaching page puts the museum on levels 4 and 5 (12,210 sq m for the collection) and gives 10,400 sq m to the public library, with cinemas and a performance hall below the piazza.

Floor areas differ between sources: more than 7,000 sq m per open floor (structure page), about 7,500 sq m per level (the Centre's building page), 6,000 sq m (Pompidou+), and 103,305 sq m in total (about 11.1 lakh sq ft) on the Fondazione Renzo Piano page. For the real plans and sections, use the Fondazione archive and the RPBW page; our diagrams do not trace them.

Centre Pompidou structure analysis: section and gerberettes

The structure is a row of identical steel frames. The Centre's structure page gives 14 portal frames spaced 12.80 m apart, making 13 bays; 28 columns, each 49 m long and 85 cm in diameter; 84 beams, each 45 m long and 75 tonnes; and 168 gerberettes, each 8 m long and 10 tonnes, made by Krupp-Stahlbau. RPBW and the Fondazione describe the beams as 48 m Warren trusses, so the span is given as 45 m or 48 m depending on the source.

What is a gerberette?

The gerberette is the cast-steel bracket that joins each truss to its column. The Centre says the idea goes back to the German engineer Heinrich Gerber (1832 to 1912), hence the name, and that Peter Rice developed it for this building. It describes how it works: the bracket is threaded over the column; the truss hangs from its round inner "head"; and at the end of its long outer arm a vertical tie rod, a cable 22 cm in diameter anchored in the ground, acts as a counterweight.

The section explains the plan: the outer arms create a strip outside the column line, and that strip is where the escalator, walkways and ducts hang.

The columns

The columns are hollow cast steel, welded on site from three sections. The Centre's structure page says they were filled with water for stability and fire protection; Hugo Trutt in Pompidou+ ("The metallic exoskeleton", 1 December 2025) says the water and glycol fill was replaced in the early 2000s by a protective coating.

Materials and construction

The Centre calls the frame "a giant construction kit" of steel, glass and concrete: cast steel for the frame, painted white; reinforced concrete for the slabs and foundations; and glass façade panels in bays 7 m high.

Construction ran for five years. The chronology says excavation began in May 1972: a hole 20 m deep over 16,000 sq m (about 1.7 lakh sq ft), held by retaining walls (the Fondazione gives 16 to 20 m). From October 1974 to summer 1975 the beams were brought from Germany, day and night, and the frame went up. Trutt writes that the beams and gerberettes together weigh nearly 8,000 tonnes, and that Krupp's wartime arms production made its contract controversial in France. The exposed pipes were made by Saint-Gobain Pont-à-Mousson; the Centre says they earned the building the nickname "the refinery".

Light, climate and services: the colour code

Every service is visible and coded by colour. The Centre's building page gives: blue for air (air conditioning), green for water, yellow for electricity and red for moving people (escalators and lifts). The frame is white. Pompidou+ adds that the rooftop cooling towers are white, not blue, because Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had them repainted.

The colours were argued over. In "The signature colours" (27 January 2026), Trutt writes that Vasarely proposed a gold and blue frame before Piano proposed primary and secondary colours, each tied to a function, as in an industrial building.

Light comes in through full-height glass on the long faces. That glass is now the building's weakest point. The Centre's renovation page says all the façades will be replaced because they are damaged, contain asbestos and perform poorly in heat and cold. Architectural Record reported in June 2024 that the works aim to cut energy use by 40 percent, and quoted the project's Adrien Paporello: "Right now, cooled and heated air are mixed to obtain the desired temperature."

Reception: critics, crowds and repairs

The Centre's building page says critics first called it "Notre Dame of the Pipes". Writing on its tenth birthday, Louise Lief of the Christian Science Monitor (27 February 1987) reported that a group of French architects had sued to stop construction, that politicians attacked its $180 million cost, and that later critics called it a "culture supermarket". She also reported more than 7 million visitors a year.

Those crowds wore the building out. Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor (9 June 1994) reported a design capacity of 7,000 visitors a day against an average of 26,000, a main entrance that acted as a bottleneck, and a planned $110 million renovation. The Centre dates it from 1 October 1997 to 1 January 2000; RPBW, which carried it out, lists 1996 to 2000.

The open floor was partly undone by use: the museum's first layout of movable walls lasted only from 1977 to 1985, when Gae Aulenti, Italo Rota and Piero Castiglioni refitted it with more conventional galleries, according to the Centre. The escalator tube and entrance canopy were modernised from 2019 to 2021.

Centre Pompidou renovation and closure (2025 to 2030)

Why is the Centre Pompidou closed? The Centre's renovation page lists the technical works: asbestos removal and replacement of all façades, replacement of all power equipment and distribution networks, better fire safety and accessibility, treatment of corrosion, and renewal of the lifts and escalators in the Forum. Its provisional timetable: works decided in 2020, architect chosen in March 2024, museum and library closed in March 2025, full closure to the public at the end of September 2025, works from April 2026, and reopening in 2030.

The architects are Moreau Kusunoki with Frida Escobedo Studio for the cultural project, and AIA Life Designers for the technical works, with RPBW consulted on changes to the existing building. Architectural Record expected the reopening in the first quarter of 2030; the Centre says 2030.

What designers in India can take from it

Our reading, not the architects':

1. Plan services for replacement. Pipes and plant wear out long before the frame. Indian buildings often bury services in walls and slabs; a reachable service zone makes later upgrades possible. Exposed steel in Mumbai, Chennai or Kochi faces salt and monsoon, and the Pompidou's own works include corrosion treatment, so budget the paint and inspection cycle from day one.
2. Draw the clear zone first. The open floors exist because columns, lifts and ducts all moved outside the span. An Indian library or exhibition hall rarely needs 45 m, but the habit applies: fix the open zone, then put servant spaces on its edges.
3. Give some of the site to the city. The piazza took half the plot and became the front door. Many Indian public buildings sit behind compound walls; a shaded forecourt open to the street can do more than extra built area.
4. Design for the crowd you will get. Planned for 7,000 a day, used by 26,000: entrances and routes need a margin, and room for another entry. Indian museums and stations face the same pressure.
5. A glass box is a climate problem. The façades being replaced perform poorly even in temperate Paris. In most Indian climates an unshaded glass box would overheat; keep the openness, add shade and depth.

If this is for a thesis, our list of B.Arch thesis topics by typology has cultural and public-building topics where these ideas apply, and our post on sustainable architecture trends covers façades and energy. Our Lloyd's Building case study takes Rogers's services-outside idea into an office tower.

Visiting the Centre Pompidou

According to the Centre's page on the programme during closure, it closed to the public on 22 September 2025, works begin in early 2026, and it is due to reopen in 2030. During the closure the Centre runs its programme at partner venues in Paris and elsewhere, including the Grand Palais and the Centre Pompidou-Metz. Ircam stays in its building on Place Stravinsky. A new Centre Pompidou Francilien at Massy is due to open in spring 2027. Check the Centre's site for current dates before you travel.

See projects by architects and designers on MOA: explore projects on MOA.

FAQ

Who designed the Centre Pompidou?

Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini won the 1971 competition, with Ove Arup & Partners as structural and services engineers. Peter Rice of Arup developed the cast-steel gerberettes.

When was the Centre Pompidou built?

The competition was in 1971, excavation started in May 1972, the steel frame went up from October 1974 to summer 1975, and the building was inaugurated on 31 January 1977, according to the Centre's chronology.

What do the colours of the pipes on the Centre Pompidou mean?

Blue is air, green is water, yellow is electricity and red is the movement of people (lifts and escalators). The steel frame is white. The Centre's own pages give this code.

What is a gerberette in the Centre Pompidou?

A cast-steel bracket, 8 m long and 10 tonnes, that sits on each column. The floor truss hangs from its inner end and a tie rod anchored in the ground holds down its outer end. There are 168 of them.

Why is the Centre Pompidou closed and when will it reopen?

It closed on 22 September 2025 for asbestos removal, new façades, new energy systems, fire safety and accessibility works. The Centre plans to reopen in 2030.

Sources

• Centre Pompidou: Structure et modules (teaching resource on the building) (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Centre Pompidou: Espaces et usages (teaching resource) (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Centre Pompidou: Architectes et ingénieurs (teaching resource) (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Centre Pompidou: L'histoire du projet Beaubourg, chronology (PDF) (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Centre Pompidou: The building's architecture (renovation section) (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Centre Pompidou: Renovation project, Centre Pompidou 2030 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Centre Pompidou: The programme during closure (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Pompidou+ magazine: From Pompidou to "Beaubourg", Séverine Pierron, 13 April 2023 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Pompidou+ magazine: Architectural Secrets, the metallic exoskeleton, Hugo Trutt, 1 Dec 2025 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Pompidou+ magazine: Secrets d'archi, les tuyaux du Centre Pompidou, Hugo Trutt, 6 Oct 2025 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Pompidou+ magazine: Architectural Secrets, the signature colours, Hugo Trutt, 27 Jan 2026 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Centre Georges Pompidou (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Fondazione Renzo Piano: Centre Georges Pompidou, project archive (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Arup: Centre Pompidou (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Architectural Record: Paris's Centre Pompidou to Close in September 2025 for a Major Revamp, Andrew Ayers, 26 June 2024 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Christian Science Monitor: Pompidou Center at 10 thriving despite barbs, Louise Lief, 27 Feb 1987 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Christian Science Monitor: Tourist-Trodden Pompidou Center Gets a Lift, Howard LaFranchi, 9 June 1994 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Wikimedia Commons: Freedom of panorama (accessed 3 Nov 2026)