P. 50 — 1 LOMBARD’S “PROGRAMMATION”: AN ADVANCED METHOD OF CONCERTED DESIGN

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PREFACE BY LAURENT LE BON

President of the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou

Since its inauguration in 1977, the Centre Pompidou has been regarded as a unique place, both in its architecture and in its uses. Even so, it is astonishing that over the past forty years no major scientifc research has been carried out on its architectural history, despite its many citations, descriptions, succinct analyses, and critiques it has been subject to. This dark age is henceforth a thing of the past thanks to the work of Boris Hamzeian, who has dedicated his PhD thesis – carried out at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, or École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) – to studying the genesis and construction of the Centre Pompidou.

Over a period of fve years, the young architect Boris Hamzeian has taken on the role of a true historian. He has cross-referenced the available sources, public and private archival documents – both written and illustrated– as well as collected testimonies. He has benefted from the assistance of Centre Pompidou’s teams: Jean-Philippe Bonilli, archivist, and Olivier Cinqualbre, curator of the architectural collection at the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre of Industrial Creation (Musée national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle). In particular, he has gained the trust of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, as well as of their associates from that time. In addition to the current curators of their respective archives within Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners (now RSHP), Fondazione Renzo Piano, and the ARUP engineering studio. It fell upon him to write the history of the Centre Pompidou’s construction – the entire duration of this adventure, all the twists and turns of this collective work, while keeping a suitable distance from his object of study. He did not allow himself to be overwhelmed by the exceptional character of this building which, for those of us who have had the pleasure of working there, never ceases to inspire awe.

Each decade, we have made a point of celebrating the anniversary of the Centre Pompidou’s inauguration, the last time being in 2017 in the presence of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. It has also been important for us to celebrate their respective careers through retrospectives – frstly in 2000 for Renzo Piano on the occasion of the Centre Pompidou’s reopening after a construction campaign, and then in 2007 for Richard Rogers on the occasion of the centre’s 30th anniversary.

Today, as we approach its 50th anniversary, we can but rejoice that Boris Hamzeian’s work be published, and that the Pompidou Centre be associated with it. This prospective publication caught the interest of Richard Rogers, and the project now benefts from the support of Fondazione Renzo Piano