The main feature of the new building, which may have won the architect in the competition in 2003, is the conical awning roof that connects all parts of the museum complex together. It was modeled on a Chinese peasant hat that Ban found in a market in Paris. Instead of the bamboo fibers used for that headdress, a Japanese architect suggested for the Pompidou-Metz Center a wooden frame in the form of a grid with hexagonal holes and a Teflon-coated fiberglass membrane.
Bana was interested not so much in its shape as in the technical characteristics of its structure: with a very low weight, it can cover vast spaces. This approach is typical for an architect who uses paper, cardboard and shipping containers as building materials. Even the walls of his temporary workshop on the roof of the first Pompidou Center in Paris are made of cardboard tubes covered with the same membrane from which the "tent" of the Metz branch will be made.
In the new museum under the roof will be hidden three huge concrete "pipes" with exhibition halls inside, installed one on top of the other and oriented in different directions. At the end of each will arrange a panoramic window with views of the city station, the cathedral and the park around the museum with an area of 20 hectares. The complex will also have a huge "nave" - a hall for exposition of large-scale works, a lobby, an auditorium, administrative premises, and a cafe. The purpose of most of these spaces - unlike showrooms - can vary depending on the situation. The park deserves a special mention - its project appeared almost before the plans of the museum, as Shigeru Ban wanted: to make the building more closely connected with the natural environment around it, it will be "embedded" between the already planted trees.
In general, the construction of the first branch of the Center Pompidou worth 54 million euros is an important event not only for Metz, already experiencing the "Bilbao syndrome", but also for the art world: following the Guggenheim Museum, Center Pompidou embarked on the path of becoming a brand of international cultural life, and his leading position is also based not only on his art collections, but also on the first-class architecture of the buildings of his branches.
