Philip Dodd and guests discuss the origins, history and legacy behind Paris's Centre Georges Pompidou, a building that can truly claim to be a modern landmark. First opened in 1977, its external casing of brightly coloured pipes and escalators is today regarded as a classic of contemporary architecture and a major Paris tourist attraction. But at the time, the Pompidou Centre's architects, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, were relative unknowns, and their distinctive design, according to one commentator, 'turned the architecture world upside down'.
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Thirty years ago a hugely controversial public building appeared in a traditional Parisian square.
The Centre Pompidou - the Arts centre still called Beaubourg by most Parisians - rapidly became one of France's most loved cultural icons.
It is respected around the world and has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.
The design, by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, was unlike anything that had been built before - it flaunted a radical rethinking of fundamental precepts of design and construction and became instantly famous for its flexibility and for wearing its structural skeleton on the outside.
The Pompidou Centre has become an architectural icon that has set a challenge to architects ever since.
In tonight's Night Waves; Landmark, Philip Dodd celebrates thirty years of a building that manages to remain modern looking.
He explores the context for the building of Pompidou and investigates the French willingness to embrace new architecture and considers the legacy of Centre Pompidou as both a building and as a powerhouse for contemporary arts.
Joining him are:
Odile Decq - a leading French architect
Marie-Laure Jousset - head of design at the Pompidou
Colin Jones - author of Paris: Biography Of A City, published by Penguin
Philip Gumuchdijan - an architect who has worked for Richard Rogers
Nathan Silver - author of The Making of Beaubourg: A Building Biography of the Centre Pompidou, Paris published by the MIT Press
