Please don’t screw with the Pompidou

Paris’s postmodern landmark is to close for refurbishment for five years – almost as long as it took to build – and while its exterior, with its famous ‘caterpillar’ escalator, will escape mostly untouched, John Grindrod is worried how the iconic gallery might be dramatically ‘updated’

The Centre Pompidou gallery, in its pomp (Getty Images)

France is having a bit of a summer, isn’t it? Massive political turmoil; Macron’s sudden call for elections; the Paris Olympics landing in just over a month. But there’s more change coming to the heart of the capital.

Yesterday, architects unveiled plans for the Pompidou Centre – plans so big, they’ll require it to be shut for a colossal five years, and partially closed for seven – as long as it originally took to build.

Back in 1971, the team of Richard Rogers, Su Rogers and Renzo Piano unexpectedly won an international design competition for a vast museum and library. It was chosen at a time when Paris was still reeling from the protests of 1968, and there was a feeling that this new centre needed to feel open and accessible and of the people, not of the establishment. The architects – then a hippyish bunch of relative youngsters – seemed to represent a new order, their design a demonstration of fresh thinking that was desperately needed.