Richard Rogers, who found fame three decades ago by turning a Paris museum inside out, has won architecture's most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize.
The Centre Pompidou — built with fellow Pritzker winner Renzo Piano — was initially skewered by critics as "Bowelism" for exposing and celebrating the ducts, pipes, and girders that architects normally hide. "The French were pretty tough and the international press, except for one critic, hated the building," Rogers said.
"Our concept was that the building would be legible — that the public could read how the structure supports the building, how the columns fit, how the wiring goes. We were keen on lightness, flexibility and a sense of space. We wanted a space for all people, all creeds, all ages."
Eventually, the Pompidou became one of the city's most fluid social hubs; in the near term, it meant two years without work for Rogers. ("Nobody else wanted a Pompidou Centre after we finished.")
But after winning the competition to design a new Lloyd's of London, he jump started his stalled career by creating a masterwork that the Pritzker committee called "the most important embodiment of the high tech movement."
In announcing the award, the Pritzker committee also praised the Pompidou Centre for "knocking art off its pedestal and making it a far more democratic experience," and cited Rogers' forceful advocacy of urban planning and green architecture. "Throughout his long, innovative career," the citation reads, "Rogers shows us that perhaps the architect's most lasting role is that of a good citizen of the world."
British Architect Wins 2007 Pritzker Prize, Architect Richard Rogers wins top prize [The New York Times, Reuters]
