“Walking up through the front square and the gardens that link the downtown area and the Metz train station to the Centre Pompidou-Metz, visitors will discover a building in light and luminous tones, both powerful and graceful, inviting them to take shelter under its protective roof. We imagined an architecture that speaks of openness and well-being, a meeting of cultures, in an immediate sensory relationship with the environment.” said Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines the two project designers.
The Centre Pompidou-Metz is a large hexagonal structure with three galleries running through the building. A central spire reaches up 77 metres, alluding to the 1977 opening date of the original Centre Pompidou.
Inside the building, the general atmosphere is light with a pale wood roof, white-painted walls and floors in pearl-grey polished concrete. The roof, the relation between the interrior and exterior and the four exhibition galleries make up highly innovative architectural choices.