An international architecture competition has been launched for the renovation of one of Brussels’ modernist masterpieces to create a new satellite for the world-famous Pompidou Center art museum.
The Urban Development Corporation of the Brussels-Capital Region is seeking a design team to lead the €125m (US$136m, £104m) Citroën Cultural Centre project.
As well as the 15,000sq m (161,500sq ft) Pompidou branch, there will also be a 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) home for the International Centre for Urbanism, Architecture and Landscape and 10,000sq m of public spaces for cultural, educational and recreational activities.
The competitive tender will take place in two phases. First is an open call for applications, from which a selection committee will shortlist seven candidates. Practices in contention will then submit their design proposals and an international panel will choose a final winner.
The deadline for the receipt of requests to participate is Tuesday 6 June 2017.
The complex will be partly housed within the Citroën Yser Garage located on Place de l’Yse. In the early 1930s, manufacturer André Citroën bought the site to build Europe’s then-largest car factory.
In collaboration with the French architect Maurice-Jacques Ravazé, the Belgian architects Alexis Dumont and Marcel Van Goethem designed a 16,500sq m (177.600sq ft) complex made largely of glass, steel and concrete. Openness, transparency, flexibility, horizontality, functionality and light were integral to the design.
Imagined as a “cathedral of space and light”, the building's showroom is a 21m (68.8ft) high glass palace, characterised by a rounded curtain wall extending from the ground floor to the roof.
Architects competing for the renovation contract will be tasked with renovating and expanding the building into the largest museum in Brussels since the beginning of the 20th century. The opening is planned for 2020.
The existing Pompidou Centre, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, opened in Paris in 1977. Its famous steel skeleton, ‘inside-out’ configuration, exterior caterpillar escalators and colour-coded utility pipes are recognised by people across the world. Now it receives an average of 3.8 million visitors a year.
In the latest issue of CLADmag, Mike Davies, a founding partner of the Richard Rogers Partnership,
explains how the centre came into being.
