Georges Pompidou National Centre for Art and Culture museum in Paris

A “hideous” object, a “monster … just like Loch Ness” or a “town where you [can] find everything – lunch, great art, a library, great music”, even “fun”?

Out of the 681 entries to a 1971 international competition for The Centre Pompidou, a new cultural building in Paris, it was the radical design of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers that was chosen, a win that came as a surprise even to the architects themselves.

Renzo Piano thought that “After decades of museums being dusty, boring and inaccessible … someone had to run away, to do something different, have a sense of participation. Someone had to express that rebellion. Putting this spaceship in the middle of Paris was a bit mad but an honest gesture. It was brave but also a bit impolite, for sure.”

What do you think?