Who designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris?

Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Centre Pompidou was created by an international design team led by Italian architect Renzo Piano and British architect Richard Rogers, with Gianfranco Franchini also involved. Their winning proposal was selected in 1971 from 681 competition entries for a major cultural centre in Paris.

Completed in 1977, the building became a landmark of high-tech architecture. Instead of hiding its structure and services, the design places steelwork, ducts, pipes, escalators, and circulation systems on the exterior. Its colour coding is deliberate: blue identifies climate-control systems, green plumbing, yellow electrical systems, and red circulation and safety elements.

The centre was commissioned during the presidency of Georges Pompidou and is located in the Beaubourg area of Paris’s 4th arrondissement. A common simplification is to name only Piano and Rogers; that is the standard quiz answer, although Su Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini also contributed to the broader design team.