STRUCTURE AND CORE POMPIDOU CENTRE PARIS, PIANO & ROGERS

FIGURE 1

The Pompidou Centre, Paris was designed by architects Piano and Rogers and was the winner of the 1971 international competition, which was set by the president of France. The design was chosen by the French government and was built over the next five and a half years.

Pompidou was built with the intention to become a ‘mixed-use’ cultural with every level to be opened to the public. Today the Pompidou centre houses internationally renowned modern art collections available to all members to enjoy.

The Pompidou Centre is very unique in its architectural intention. Regular building design has effectively been turned ‘inside out’. The wall frames, steel bracing and service areas are read as the skin of the building. The decision to turn the building inside out freed up all the internal space from circulation and servicing to provide an unusually large amount of flexibility. Piano and Rogers designed the building to make a statement. All the functional elements of the building are colour coded; green representing plumbing, blue – ducts for climate control, yellow – electrical wires, red – circulation devices and safety devices.

The Walls on all elevations of the building are held back just over 1.5metres from the columns and gable trusses. The trusses and their distance from the building and glass give a moderate degree of sun shading which is evident in figure 3. The exterior structure and trusses along the escalator create shade from the sun depending on its position in the sky. The building is also fitted with fire safety metal roll down shutters which are automatically activated in the event of a fire however can also be manually operated for solar control.

FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3

University of South Australia, B.Arch.St,BUIL 2006, Assignment1, 2010

Pompidou Centre

Gilbert L. ID110017168, King B. ID110017227, Leake N. ID10012112, Galaret B. ID ID9603010F

CORE ARRANGMENTS

The Core arrangement of the building is situated around the exterior, freeing the interior of the building from the permanent use of circulation and servicing. The building makes use of an end core on the western and eastern side of the building, therefore creating two cores. This use of an external core is produced from the programmatic need for the flexibility of internal spaces. Vertical Circulation is spread along the western facade of the building while mechanical workings and air-conditioning are positioned along the eastern frame in the building’s exoskeleton. The public core of the building is enclosed by an exposed steel skeleton and diagonal bracing. The machine infrastructures are situated outside the glass skin of the building to achieve unobstructed and adaptable interior volumes.

The escalator tubes on the exterior of the building do not provide public access to the museum areas; access is located rather at the doors positioned centrally at the lower edge of the plaza. In reality, the escalators serve only the mezzanine level, level four and level six. A double height interior space connects the street level with the plaza level in a single volume, containing the general reception area, while the mezzanine of the space is at street level. An escalator at the plaza level takes visitors to the North West corner of the building, at this corner, a small lobby connects to four elevators, stairs and the exterior escalator. Four sets of stair wells are positioned equal distances apart along the western side of the building, providing access to each floor.

The building’s central plant is located in the basement, with the services distributed vertically within the eastern frame to equipment on the lower levels, and then onto roof level air-conditioning plants and cooling towers. Some services, such as the trumpeted air vents that are visible, are distributed horizontally along the eastern façade. This façade also contains all goods lifts and fire stairs, with continuous steel galleries for ease of maintenance and access.

There are some circulation platforms within the interior space of the building; however most of them are restricted to staff access and emergency exits. The corridors, ducts, fire stairs, escalators, lifts, columns and bracing are exposed on the exterior.

FIGURE 4 - Section

Public Circulation

Core, spread along

western facade

Service Core

distributed vertically

along eastern frame FIGURE 5 – Circulation Core

University of South Australia, B.Arch.St,BUIL 2006, Assignment1, 2010

Pompidou Centre

Gilbert L. ID110017168, King B. ID110017227, Leake N. ID10012112, Galaret B. ID ID9603010F

FIGURE 7

FIGURE 8

FIGURE 9

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

The Pompidou Centre employs a braced frame system. The structural concept for the facade

is hinged on six tapered cast steel rocker beams known as gerberettes which links the tension

ties, compression columns and truss girders. The two main structural support planes are

comprised of a series of 800mm diameter spun steel hollow columns, each of which supports

six gerberettes. Spherical bearings allow the gerberette to flex and rotate without

transmitting eccentric loads to the column. The compressive forces in the trusses move

through the gerberettes and are transferred in tension down the outer frame wall rods to the

foundation. Consequently, the rotational forces acting on the column are reduced, and

therefore the columns are required to only act in compression.

The superstructure consists of 13 bays, six floors high with a floor to floor height of 7m; they

are made up of cast and prefabricated steel with reinforced concrete floor sections. The

floors transmit horizontal forces from wind to either end of the building, they also carry

vertical loads between the truss girders. The floor is made up of a series of 110mm concrete

panels between any two truss girders. In plan the superstructure consists of three zones, with

the middle zone containing a 48 meter span across the building interior between the main

columns. The outside two zones make up the structural wall frames to support and cantilever

the main span lattice girders. The exterior frame provides tension forces outside the main

volume’s external columns, pulling the cantilevered horizontal members downward, reducing

the bending forces on the floor span. This complementary structural strategy eliminates the

need for supporting columns across the interior span. The stability of the building is achieved

through diagonal bracing in the long facades and by stabilised end frames.

The Building is clad in a wall of steel and glass, combining glazed glass and solid metal panels

to clad the outside of the building. The panels are hung from the floor above to keep them

structurally separate from the facades.

FIGURE 6

University of South Australia, B.Arch.St,BUIL 2006, Assignment1, 2010

Pompidou Centre

Gilbert L. ID110017168, King B. ID110017227, Leake N. ID10012112, Galaret B. ID ID9603010F

EFFECT OF STRUCTURE &

CORE ON FLOOR PLAN

FIGURE 10

The decision to design the core around the skin of the building created an extremely open floor plan so that each level could be used as gallery space.

The public are able to freely move around the open floor plan without the area being interrupted by elevators, escalators or staircases which normally divides and disrupts spaces in buildings.

There are no permanent partitions so spaces can easily be adapted for each exhibition, examples of the large amount of flexibility achieved from the design.

The use of the braced exterior frame in conjunction with the main volumes external columns dismisses the need for supporting columns which would divide up the open floor plan.

The advantage of having the pedestrian traffic circulating around the outside of the building, provides the observers of the exhibitions with a more relaxed and browser friendly atmosphere.

FIGURE 10

EFFECT OF THE CORE & STRUCTURE ON THE FAÇADE The structure and core of the building is what makes up the façade in this building. This means that all the structural elements such as bracing and columns which would normally be hidden inside the façade are visible to everyone.

Circulation also occurs on the façade of the building and provides a screen that obstructs the visibility of street traffic. Services such as air-conditioning, water and electrical run vertically up the façade in colour coded pipes according to their individual functions.

Designing the structure as the skin of the building creates the need to develop a fire safety plan unique to the Pompidou Centre. The glass wall framing is set back 1.6meters from the exoskeleton of the building, and is fitted with metal roll down shutters which protect the external structure if a fire erupts internally.

FIGURE 11

University of South Australia, B.Arch.St,BUIL 2006, Assignment1, 2010

Pompidou Centre

Gilbert L. ID110017168, King B. ID110017227, Leake N. ID10012112, Galaret B. ID9603010F FIGURE 12

LATERAL STABILITY

The Pompidou centre achieves lateral stability by using a braced framing technique, in particular a cross or X braced frame. This type of bracing gets its name from the X shape that is created from the two central poles that cross at the centre. The cross braced frame is a very important part to the buildings structure because the braces absorb the lateral loads in the stiffened frames so the frames legs are no longer subject to bending. This means the frame is stiffened laterally by the cross bracing and the load is then transferred down to the point where the bars intersect at an ‘X’ and is then distributed through the frame.

The cross-braced frame intersects at a horizontal every second floor (2nd, 4th, 6th) and also connects to the floor slab at the same point. With the help of the tension ties and the more than required bracing the building more stable.

CANTILEVERS Along with the services, the various means of access to the building (lifts, escalators, horizontal galleries) are cantilevered around the load bearing structure of the buildings cross-braced frame. The tunnel like structure and balconies are cantilevered out 6 metres from the main columns these cantilevered tunnels are then attached to the frame by outer tension-rod members that are attached to the frame. The cantilever force acts through horizontal cast steel gerberette beams that thread around the main columns beneath the frame

FIGURE 13

University of South Australia, B.Arch.St,BUIL 2006, Assignment1, 2010

Pompidou Centre

Gilbert L. ID110017168, King B. ID110017227, Leake N. ID10012112, Galaret B. ID9603010F

The load is pushed

down onto the frame

The load is then pushed

laterally & down into the

cross section and the rest

of the frame.

FIGURE 14

University of South Australia, B.Arch.St,BUIL 2006, Assignment1, 2010

Pompidou Centre

Gilbert L. ID110017168, King B. ID110017227, Leake N. ID10012112, Galaret B. ID

REFERENCES Bachman, L, 2003, Integrated buildings: the systems basis of architecture, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Clark, RH & Pause, M, 1985 , Precedents in architecture , Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.

Eisele, J & Kloft, E, 2004, High-rise manual, Basel, Boston.

Jodidio, P, 2005 , Piano: Renzo Piano building workshop 1966 - 2005 .

Piano, R, 1989 , Renzo Piano and Building Workshop: buildings and projects, Rizzoli, New York.

Piano, R, 1989, building workshop 1964-1988, A + U Publishing, Tokyo.

Silver, N, 1994 , The making of Beaubourg: a building biography of the Centre Pompidou Paris, MIT Press, Cambridge.

IMAGE REFERENCES FIGURE 1; The making of Beaubourg: a building biography of the Centre Pompidou Paris

FIGURE 2; http://casadaidea.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/pompidou_centre2966.jpg

FIGURE 3; http://blog.lib.umn.edu/kenne474/architecture/Pictures/centre-pompidou.jpg-thumb.png

FIGURE 4; The making of Beaubourg: a building biography of the Centre Pompidou Paris

FIGURE 5; Renzo Piano and Building Workshop: buildings and projects

FIGURE 6; www.new-paris-ile-de-france.co.uk/museums-and-monuments-paris/museums-and-cultural-places/centre-pompidou/en-image-71742.html

FIGURE 7; www.nitee.com/en/Europe/France/Paris/Sights/Museums/

FIGURE 8; Renzo Piano and Building Workshop: buildings and projects

FIGURE 9; Integrated buildings: the systems basis of architecture

FIGURE 10; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Centre_Pompidou.html Accessed 08/08/2010

FIGURE 11; www.phototravels.net/paris/N0028/paris-city-55.html

FIGURE 12; Betina Galaret

FIGURE 13; www.crisman.scripts.mit.edu/blog/?paged=10

FIGURE 14; Nicole Leake

FLOOR STRUCTURES A Modular Design the Pompidou centre offers a vast area of free high spaces, with technical conducts visibly Layers outside the building or in exposed roof ducts, even in galleries intended for the display of significant works. (Renzo Piano 1989 pg 49)

CIRCULATION:

Public access to the museum areas is not from the escalator tubes, as the building exterior seems to suggest, but from the doors located centrally at the lower edge of the plaza. A double height interior forum connects the street level with the plaza level in a single volume. The vertical circulation components are spread across the length of a pedestrian plaza on the west side.

FLOORS:

“Act as horizontal beams, transmitting the horizontal forces from the wind and stability to either end of the building as well as carrying the vertical load between truss girders. The floor between and two trusses consist of 110mm concrete panels connected to I Profiles which span onto truss girders. The panels are alternatinatly pinned and continuous to enable the truss girders to deflect independently to the floor” (Silver, N, 1994 pg 135)

TRUSSES:

Has a continuous double tube compression chords. And a continuous double solid round for the bottom tension chord. The latter sized to carry the forces found at the different sections of the truss girder. They are fitted and welded into the cast steel nodes. The truss has 2.5m effective depth and spans 44.8m between supports. ” (Silver, N, 1994 pg 135)