Art museum features unusual white undulating roof

Specialty Fabrics Review | September 2010

Called a number of pet names—Smurf House, Chinese Hat, White Toadstool— because of its unusual white undulating roof, the new Centre Georges Pompidou outpost art museum in Metz, France, is a serious work of design by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and French architect Jean de Gastines (associated with Philip Gumuchdjia). The Pompidou-Metz is encased by a large latticework structure of curvilinear laminated wood capped by a taut white PTFE-coated fiberglass membrane.

Ban’s inspiration, it’s said, was the hexagonal canework pattern of a Chinese hat purchased in the museum shop of the mothership Centre Pompidou, Paris. The translucent fabric roof covers a surface area of 8,000m² and glows at night. Boxy art galleries hover under this undulating fabric hat and protrude at strategic points to face landmarks in the Metz cityscape.

Comments

There are not yet any comments.
You can submit a comment using the form below.