May 1977: ‘Pompidou cannot be perceived as anything but a monument’ | Thinkpiece | Architectural Review
▻https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/may-1977-pompidou-cannot-be-perceived-as-anything-but-a-monument/8627187.article
Reyner Banham discusses the roles of Megastructure, Archigram and modern technology in Pompidou’s design
Originally published in May 1977
Reyner Banham is surely right to interpret the Centre Pompidou in terms of recent architectural history; and to see it as the apotheosis of Archigram and of the Megastructure idea. For this is the only door through which to reach an understanding of how and why this remarkable building is as it is.
Unfortunately - and this accounts for the rough reception, the Centre has received from Parisians - ‘recent architectural history’ is a small door through which only architects customarily pass; and though it must seem almost blasphemous to say this, not many outside the charmed circle of modern architecture have even heard of Archigram and of its apocalyptic struggles in an unresponsive society.