Centre Pompidou-Metz
The box form in museums is perhaps inevitable, but Ban mixes things up by stacking three long, rectangular galleries, or what he calls "tubes," on different axes.
Each gallery terminates in a dramatic picture window that frames important local monuments: One is pointed at Metz's 13th century Gothic cathedral.
Woven hat or infinitely repeated Star of David? The Pompidou-Metz's sculptural roof is based on a regular hexagon, pulled to a peak to allow for a grand foyer, and pulled downward at the points. The structure is a system of layered and bolted timbers.
