Pritzker to Rogers.
31.03.07Filed Under: Architecture
When I was in Paris one of the more striking buildings I saw was the Centre Pompidou. At the time I didn’t know the architect, but it was striking. The one thing that really stood out was the way the building was presented to people in the area, as though it were a piece of art itself. It really was worth just sitting there and watching.
Turns out the guy behind the design was Richard Rogers, and he won The Pritzker Prize (sweet website dudes) this year. He’s become famous for exposing the infrastructure of his buildings; plumbing, HVAC etc. are not hidden from view. Often a massive amount of resources are spent on hiding these “ugly” parts, but embracing them can obviously have some striking effects. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked into old buildings in Gastown and seen beautiful brick hidden by t-bar and drywall. Any sane person’s reaction would be to tear that shit out!
Rock on Richard.
(img. from wikipedia)
4 Responses to “Pritzker to Rogers.”
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Yeah that’s cool. It’s funny how things are like that. Most people would walk into a building in Yaletown and see exposed HVAC and think something was wrong. However, head over to Gastown into a loft apartment with exposed everything, concrete floors and brick walls and suddenly it’s the next New York style apartment worthy of top dollar.
As an aside, I used to design HVAC and fire protection systems as a summer student, so that’s really cool that someone would expose all that.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:06 pmThe Centre Pompidiou is not just about the plumbing on the outside - though that did mean wonderful clear spaces inside. Not having a central services/structure column (like nearly every building in downtown Vancouver) made a lot more usuable space and flexibility in its use. Especially important for an exhibition place.
But my favourite feature is the plaza outside with the street performers, which was shamelessly copied - and very successfully - at Covent Garden in London in existing long established spaces formerly used for selling flowers, fruit and veg.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:06 pmI found an old picture I took in 1982 soon after the centre opened of a street performer outside the Centre
http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/fire-eater-paris-1982-2/
May 4th, 2007 at 1:19 pm[…] is a picture of the building […]
May 4th, 2007 at 1:26 pm