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Chicago Tribune
19-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Alicia Pederson: Chicago's affordable housing plan demands a courtyard block blueprint
Taking a bold step toward tackling Chicago's housing crisis, the City Council voted 30-18 to green-light the Residential Investment Corp., a city-backed nonprofit developer funded with $135 million from Mayor Brandon Johnson's Housing and Economic Development Bond. We love to see this push for 'Green Social Housing' that is affordable, mixed-income and eco-conscious. But if we do not plan for family-friendly density, we risk increasing the supply of small, yard-less housing that drives families to red states and suburbs. Let Residential Investment Corp. carve out a slice of the $135 million for preapproved courtyard block designs, inspired by the likes of Georges-Eugène Haussmann's Paris and James Hobrecht's Berlin, as a means of harmonizing the mayor's vision of housing with family-inclusive development. Let's face it: Chicago is losing children and thus jeopardizing its demographic sustainability and home-grown connection to the future. Cook County's under-5 population plunged 15% from 2020 to 2024. Chicago Public Schools has lost more than 100,000 students in the past 20 years, with more than 40,000 leaving in just the last five. Yes, housing affordability influences where parents choose to live and raise their children. However, other elements — such as school quality, outdoor access and neighborhood amenities — play crucial roles in these decisions. Every parcel is an opportunity to build amenity-rich blocks and neighborhoods, creating the high-value housing that will help Chicago retain the families it needs to flourish in the 21st century. Courtyard blocks are the epitome of pro-social housing, and the Residential Investment Corp. can use courtyard block designs to create mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods that appeal to households of all ages, stages and income levels. In the time-tested courtyard typology found throughout Europe, city blocks are framed with wall-to-wall, mixed-use buildings, going up three to six stories. The building floor plates are wide and shallow (rather than narrow and deep like the standard North American urban floor plate), leaving room in the block interior for a large, semi-private courtyard. Each building in the block has commercial space and garage stalls on the ground floor, very large units on the lower levels, and smaller, more affordable units on upper levels. While the gracious, dual-aspect layouts appeal to households of all ages and stages, the family-oriented units on the lower levels create the 'big house with a yard' that targets families with young children. Balancing density with green space, courtyard blocks are a simple and effective way of rapidly increasing the supply of affordable, family-inclusive housing in the cities. Additionally, courtyard blocks are the gold standard for green and cost-effective development. With shared walls and walk-up heights, the buildings save energy and construction costs. The interior courtyards manage storm water, tame heat islands and cut runoff. They offer a green alternative to our outdated alley system, which doubles the area of asphalted, car-related land in the city. Instead of a blazing back alley permeated with the stench of garbage and plagued by rats, residents find a lush and usable green space, cooled by the shade of tall perimeter buildings and by heat-absorbing vegetation. This courtyard amenity, along with access to a mixed-use, walkable neighborhood, pulls families from sprawling suburbs into the dense, resource-sharing city, reducing car dependency and further cutting carbon emissions. Here's how we make it happen: What about red-tape delays, the bane of timely and efficient development? Let city planners create a courtyard-block code. Traditional zoning codes regulate land use, separating residential, commercial and industrial functions, often leading to unpredictable design outcomes and lengthy approval processes. In contrast, form-based codes prioritize the physical form and layout of buildings: They regulate height, setbacks and how structures relate to the street, regardless of specific use. This clarity allows developers to follow a rules-based framework in which projects that meet predefined design criteria are approved more quickly and with less bureaucratic friction. The Residential Investment Corp. is Chicago's chance to transform urban living. No more dead-end land deals, blighted parcels or families ditching the city. Rooted in an urban tradition that stretches back millennia, courtyard blocks are the key to sustainable, family-friendly housing in cities such as Rome, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Barcelona, Istanbul and Copenhagen. They are the greenest, most affordable way to keep our neighborhoods vibrant, our schools full and our tax base strong. Let's build a greener, more affordable city where Chicagoans stay — and thrive — across the life cycle. Alicia Pederson, Ph.D., is vice president of the Greater Rockwell Organization and a member of local urbanist groups Abundant Housing Illinois and Strong Towns Chicago. She is also the mother of three children who attend elementary school in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Times
05-05-2025
- General
- Times
Give Barcelona's grid Unesco status, say fans of planning pioneer
The 19th-century grid layout of Barcelona's Eixample district helped give rise to modern town planning and is regarded to be as historically important as Georges-Eugène Haussmann's Paris. Its creator, Ildefons Cerdà, who coined the term 'urbanisation', was panned by his rivals for producing 'one of the biggest horrors of the world' and for transforming spaces 'into the monotony of an American city'. However, the 'Cerdà plan', which rescued Barcelona's medieval city centre from collapse, has stood the test of time. A group of architects, town planners and engineers have proposed that Unesco declare Eixample a protected world heritage site, bestowing a fitting status to a district that is home to architectural landmarks such as the Sagrada Familia. The promoters of the initiative argued that
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How to lower America's sky-high home prices: be more like Paris
Cambridge, Massachusetts, may seem like an unlikely site for a YIMBY revolution. The historic Boston suburb is home to both Harvard University and a bevy of affluent homeowners opposed to any new development. The city even features prominently in the book "Neighborhood Defenders," a seminal work about anti-building, not-in-my-backyarders. Despite all that, the city recently passed a series of laws that could pave the way for a cascade of new housing construction. Cambridge could certainly use the new units. Data from Zillow shows the city's average rent is $3,400 a month — slightly higher than San Francisco's estimated average rent of $3,200. Homelessness in Cambridge has also been on the rise, particularly since the pandemic. In an attempt to ease this pressure, pro-housing groups that fall under the YIMBY umbrella (short for "yes in my backyard") — particularly the local group A Better Cambridge and the statewide organization Abundant Housing Massachusetts — have been trying to get more homes built in Cambridge for years. In recent years, that work has started to bear fruit: The city enacted a 100% affordable housing overlay in 2020, which allows developers of below-market-rate apartment complexes to build more densely than would be permitted under base zoning. Three years later, Cambridge rezoned its Central Square neighborhood, allowing apartment buildings to rise up to 18 stories high. But the latest measure is perhaps the most radical, and most promising. A measure passed in February will legalize the production of four-story apartment buildings across the entire city, with some larger lots zoned for up to six stories. Sure, these newly possible buildings aren't quite as dramatic as an 18-story tower, but this latest change is by far Cambridge's most ambitious. Unlike the geographically confined Central Square upzoning, the newest pro-housing ordinance has the potential to remake the entire city. The city's planning staff estimate that the new law may increase Cambridge's housing development capacity over the next 15 years from 350 units to 3,590 — a more than tenfold increase. The likelihood that some neighborhoods will become denser has provoked the usual opposition from local homeowners. But viewed from another angle, this densification could make the city a more vibrant and beautiful place to live. There's a reason the Cambridge city councilmember Burhan Azeem has called the city's new plan "Paris-style zoning." As it turns out, Paris is a good model for midsize American cities to follow. By allowing more European-style construction, places like Cambridge can both lower housing costs and look good doing it. Alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, one of Paris' most iconic architectural hallmarks may be its most ubiquitous: the Haussmann-style building. Georges-Eugène Haussmann (better known as Baron Haussmann) was the famed urban planner who, under Emperor Napoleon III, redesigned central Paris in the mid-19th century. Paris became a city of wide boulevards and midrise apartment complexes with distinctive limestone facades — the aforementioned Haussmann buildings. Thanks in no small part to the prevalence of these structures, Paris has achieved a density higher than any other major city in Europe or the United States — although the city of lights still struggles to keep up with demand for housing. While Haussmann buildings are specific to central Paris, plenty of other European cities have equivalent structures: four- to six-story apartment blocks with no buffer area between the front door and the sidewalk. Unlike the boxy, cheap-looking American five-over-one apartment building that has come to dominate much of our development — and which many people regard as an eyesore — Euro-style apartments generally contribute to the beauty and charm of dense, walkable tourist destinations like Stockholm and Rome. Plus, they're more efficient: thanks to European building codes and zoning rules, European-style apartment buildings can be built for less, on smaller lots, and with more family-friendly apartments in the interior. "Sure," you might say, "but what's good for Paris, Stockholm, and Rome won't work in an American context." That's a common refrain from skeptics — citing cultural differences, the need for abundant parking, or their own gut instincts — when YIMBYs propose allowing more European-style zoning in the United States. But these assumptions are incorrect for two reasons. First, upzoning cities like Cambridge is not the same thing as requiring them to build up to Parisian density. If you own a single-family home in Cambridge, and your lot has been upzoned to allow for the construction of a four-story building, you remain at liberty to keep your single-family home. If you want to redevelop the property into a multifamily building, that's great; if you decide to sell your home to a developer who will replace it with an apartment complex, that's great, too. But nobody is compelling you to do either of those things if you like your existing home. Second, Cambridge — like many other older cities in New England and the mid-Atlantic region — already has a fair number of dense apartment buildings and townhomes. Rather than destroying the culture or character of these cities, building more Parisian-style housing would signal a return to the pre-single-family era. Many of Cambridge's mid-rise apartment buildings were constructed before single-family zoning became ubiquitous in the United States in the early 20th century. And the ones that have survived are now highly coveted as luxury homes and architectural treasures; yet, for decades, it has been effectively illegal to build more of them. As Azeem wrote on X, Cambridge's previous, single-family-focused zoning laws meant that "85%+ of the existing housing" in the city would be illegal to build. In other words, Cambridge's upzoning may actually help to preserve the city's architectural heritage and New England character. At the same time, it is a model for how other cities can upzone in a manner that actually eases housing costs. While the patchwork nature of American land-use policy can slow progress in important ways, it can also be an engine for experimentation and friendly, productive competition. Pro-housing activists in cities across the country — in places like Minneapolis, Austin, and Sacramento — and far beyond, in the case of Auckland, New Zealand, have inspired each another, shared insights and tactics, and provided a push to see who can push through the most ambitious land-use overhauls. These pushes can even get a little cheeky: YIMBY advocates in Montana sold zoning changes by urging conservative lawmakers to move away from "California-style zoning." While it will take some years to assess the full impact of these revisions, the early data from places like Auckland is very promising. Some changes make a bigger impact than others. One lesson from the past few years of YIMBY experimentation is that smaller tweaks to local zoning codes may yield negligible results; ambition is vastly superior to cautious incrementalism. Take Minneapolis, one of the recent YIMBY success stories. Citywide, the production of more housing has helped to keep rents and home prices in check, but as the housing researcher Zakary Yudhisthu has found, there's more going on underneath the hood. The parts of Minneapolis that moved from single-family to duplex or triplex zoning have seen little housing growth, while the corridors that allow for denser construction have seen more permit applications. In other words, going just a few steps further is how you get real results. But to truly unlock housing production at the necessary scale, high-cost cities cannot stop at upzoning. They also need to reshape permitting rules and other onerous building requirements, such as off-street parking mandates. True European-style zoning would allow for mid-rise apartment buildings with no off-street parking and a single central staircase. (Five-over-ones exist in part because most American cities require multiple staircases in any apartment building over a certain height.) So while other expensive cities should take inspiration from Cambridge, they should also see if they can go even further. There's still plenty of room for another jurisdiction to take the lead in the race to be America's YIMBY-est city. Any takers? Ned Resnikoff is an urban policy consultant and writer. He is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and is currently working on a book about cities with an expected publication date of Fall 2026. Read the original article on Business Insider
CNN
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
One of Paris' most popular attractions is closing for 5 years. It's about to be ‘reinvented'
When it first opened in 1977, the Centre Pompidou sent shockwaves through Parisian society. The mammoth cultural center, with its industrial exterior and brightly colored exposed pipes, stood out like a sore thumb on the fringes of the French capital's historic Marais district. Its inside-out construction could not have been further from the surrounding buildings, created in Georges-Eugène Haussmann's 19th century renovation of Paris, with their trademark tall windows and wrought iron balconies. But that was the point. When former French president Georges Pompidou laid out his vision for the attraction, which would go on to take his name, he was inspired by the eye-catching architecture of modern museums like the Guggenheim in New York. 'I would like, passionately, for Paris to have a cultural center such as they have tried to create in the United States with unequal success so far, which would be both a museum and a center of creation,' he said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper in 1972. The plan, as he saw it, was to bring together different artforms under one roof, in a striking structure that would be 'both modern and constantly evolve.' Now, as it approaches its 50th birthday, the Pompidou is preparing to close for five years in order to embark on the latest stage of that evolution. The initiative, which is supported by France's Ministry of Culture, aims to future-proof the building, which is known locally as Beaubourg. The closure comes at a time when Paris' art world is already on the back foot. Just last month, President Emmanuel Macron announced a major overhaul of the Louvre, after its director warned about the degradation of the historic museum which she said is threatening its contents — including the 'Mona Lisa.' It may not have a Da Vinci, but the art at the Pompidou is no less impressive, with its permanent collection of 140,000 pieces featuring the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Chagall. Around 3.2 million people visit every year for exhibitions, movies and performances — and to take advantage of the national library, known as the Bibliothèque publique d'information (BPI). Large parts of the Pompidou are free to enter, including the BPI and what many argue is Paris' best view — accessed by the 'caterpillar' escalators on the facade. Regarded as the height of modernity when it opened in 1977, the center now faces several 'technical issues,' as management describe them, which have made it slow to adapt to the 21st century. The overriding issue is asbestos, a toxic material once widely used for fireproofing, which is present throughout the structure and must be removed. It also has a massive carbon footprint. Laid out over 10 expansive levels, the Pompidou requires vast amounts of energy to heat it in winter and cool it in summer. Beefing up the center's security measures is also vital, at a time when terrorism remains a constant threat. This is all part of the technical renovation, which is slated to cost 260 million euros ($282 million) of public money. Once it became clear that the Pompidou would need to close until 2030 for these vital improvements, its president, Laurent Le Bon, identified 'an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent the institution' with a massive cultural makeover that would 'preserve its DNA.' News of the closure has not been universally welcomed in France. Last year a host of leading figures in the French art scene wrote an open letter to the government calling for the decision to be reversed. They dubbed it a 'serious mistake' and a 'major blow to the cultural life of our country.' They acknowledged that the asbestos must be removed, but called for the work to be done in stages, while ensuring that the center remains operational — particularly as it is a public facility. A host of well-funded private museums have sprung up across Paris in recent years, including the Louis Vuitton Foundation and the Bourse de Commerce, which is home to the Pinault collection. The signatories 'applauded' such venues, but stressed that the Pompidou has a 'public service role,' and urged the government to take the 'necessary measures to preserve this symbol of our culture and modernity.' Yet while such views might have been taken into account, the closure is going ahead regardless. The cultural center has been entrusted to architecture firm Moreau Kusunoki, following a hard fought competition for the job. Their plans, which are expected to cost 186 million euros ($192 million), will be funded by the center and sponsorship deals. There will be large-scale changes to the interior and exterior, including the extensive plaza. The museum, the BPI, its galleries, cinema, performance areas and retail spaces are all set to benefit from the shakeup. Management have dubbed 2025 the 'year of metamorphosis,' as the center will be shuttered in stages. Movies and performances were stopped at the end of December, and the BPI will be next to close on March 2 — followed by the museum. While tourists will have to do without the spectacular skyline view from the top until 2030, the Pompidou is keen to stress that it's not goodbye but au revoir — with its emphasis on 'meeting again.' The BPI and Pompidou's Kandinsky Library, which holds more than 18,000 printed works by major 20th and 21st-century artists, will be relocated to the Lumière building in the capital's 12th district for five years, while movies and performances will be staged at other Paris venues including the Grand Palais. Parts of the museum's permanent collection will be on show across France and the rest of the world — including the Pompidou's satellite institutions in Málaga and Shanghai — as part of its 'constellation' program. Husband and wife team Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, co-directors of the architecture firm, told CNN they were 'honored' to undertake the 'very meaningful' upgrade of the venue. There will be a panoramic rooftop deck, and the overall design will work around blending the 'interface' of the inside with what lies outdoors. Their design, which will involve extensive recycling of waste from the old building, will also feature the 'new generation hub,' a free place designed to encourage play and creativity for children aged zero to 15. Plans to 'colonize' the center's large underground car park reflect our changing world, said Moreau. 'It was made for accommodating buses so it has high ceilings and dimensions which can accommodate cinemas and galleries,' he said. 'But in Paris there's a big move against cars in the city center now, like in all European cities.' Key to the overhaul is what Moreau describes as 'transversality,' effectively meaning the various areas will be less defined and will flow into each other. 'This ideal was to have a cultural hub going through different fields, from books, cinema, performing art, sculpture, painting,' he said. Moreau Kusunoki, which will be collaborating with Mexico City-based associate designer Frida Escobedo Studio on the overhaul of the BPI, explained how this would work. It could mean 'placing art pieces in the library' or staging exhibitions connected to books in the galleries. 'This should happen not only between the library and the art collection but also in the retail space, the kids world and the basement,' Moreau said. The pair plan to conserve the 'core concept' of Pompidou as a 'factory of art' as conceived by the original architects, the late Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, who was consulted about the makeover. Commenting on the plans, Piano said in a press release: 'The project is wholly in keeping with the building's architecture while also leaving room for future renewal and maintaining its integrity.' Kusunoki said of the center: 'It's always moving, producing, being creative. This spirit is the core concept and it's going to be conserved.' But a key part of the original vision will be challenged, the couple added. 'In the '70s they dreamed of information,' said Moreau. 'The facade was designed with a giant screen and an enormous projector.' But times have changed and so has what we want from an art center, they believe. 'People were dreaming about more cars, being transported, machines etc,' said Kusunoki. 'Information was the dream — it was the future. But today we are saturated. 'Over-information has killed some part of the imagination and maybe even killed the motivation to do physical things. The fastness, the bigness, the loudness was maybe dreamed about but today we're tired by that.' Art in France has long been regarded as being 'in the public interest,' they explained, and that is at the heart of their vision. The Centre Pompidou is a 'social shelter,' which will be more about being 'slow and analogue' than Piano and Rogers intended, and it will inspire a younger generation who have become somewhat 'isolated and a bit of a victim of digital development,' according to Kusunoki. 'We are about creating a place of physical social engagement where you physically go and move your body and meet people,' said Moreau. 'The Pompidou won't be an institution anymore but an extension of the city.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
One of Paris' most popular attractions is closing for 5 years. It's about to be ‘reinvented'
When it first opened in 1977, the Centre Pompidou sent shockwaves through Parisian society. The mammoth cultural center, with its industrial exterior and brightly colored exposed pipes, stood out like a sore thumb on the fringes of the French capital's historic Marais district. Its inside-out construction could not have been further from the surrounding buildings, created in Georges-Eugène Haussmann's 19th century renovation of Paris, with their trademark tall windows and wrought iron balconies. But that was the point. When former French president Georges Pompidou laid out his vision for the attraction, which would go on to take his name, he was inspired by the eye-catching architecture of modern museums like the Guggenheim in New York. 'I would like, passionately, for Paris to have a cultural center such as they have tried to create in the United States with unequal success so far, which would be both a museum and a center of creation,' he said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper in 1972. The plan, as he saw it, was to bring together different artforms under one roof, in a striking structure that would be 'both modern and constantly evolve.' Now, as it approaches its 50th birthday, the Pompidou is preparing to close for five years in order to embark on the latest stage of that evolution. The initiative, which is supported by France's Ministry of Culture, aims to future-proof the building, which is known locally as Beaubourg. The closure comes at a time when Paris' art world is already on the back foot. Just last month, President Emmanuel Macron announced a major overhaul of the Louvre, after its director warned about the degradation of the historic museum which she said is threatening its contents — including the 'Mona Lisa.' It may not have a Da Vinci, but the art at the Pompidou is no less impressive, with its permanent collection of 140,000 pieces featuring the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Chagall. Around 3.2 million people visit every year for exhibitions, movies and performances — and to take advantage of the national library, known as the Bibliothèque publique d'information (BPI). Large parts of the Pompidou are free to enter, including the BPI and what many argue is Paris' best view — accessed by the 'caterpillar' escalators on the facade. Regarded as the height of modernity when it opened in 1977, the center now faces several 'technical issues,' as management describe them, which have made it slow to adapt to the 21st century. The overriding issue is asbestos, a toxic material once widely used for fireproofing, which is present throughout the structure and must be removed. It also has a massive carbon footprint. Laid out over 10 expansive levels, the Pompidou requires vast amounts of energy to heat it in winter and cool it in summer. Beefing up the center's security measures is also vital, at a time when terrorism remains a constant threat. This is all part of the technical renovation, which is slated to cost 260 million euros ($282 million) of public money. Once it became clear that the Pompidou would need to close until 2030 for these vital improvements, its president, Laurent Le Bon, identified 'an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent the institution' with a massive cultural makeover that would 'preserve its DNA.' News of the closure has not been universally welcomed in France. Last year a host of leading figures in the French art scene wrote an open letter to the government calling for the decision to be reversed. They dubbed it a 'serious mistake' and a 'major blow to the cultural life of our country.' They acknowledged that the asbestos must be removed, but called for the work to be done in stages, while ensuring that the center remains operational — particularly as it is a public facility. A host of well-funded private museums have sprung up across Paris in recent years, including the Louis Vuitton Foundation and the Bourse de Commerce, which is home to the Pinault collection. The signatories 'applauded' such venues, but stressed that the Pompidou has a 'public service role,' and urged the government to take the 'necessary measures to preserve this symbol of our culture and modernity.' Yet while such views might have been taken into account, the closure is going ahead regardless. The cultural center has been entrusted to architecture firm Moreau Kusunoki, following a hard fought competition for the job. Their plans, which are expected to cost 186 million euros ($192 million), will be funded by the center and sponsorship deals. There will be large-scale changes to the interior and exterior, including the extensive plaza. The museum, the BPI, its galleries, cinema, performance areas and retail spaces are all set to benefit from the shakeup. Management have dubbed 2025 the 'year of metamorphosis,' as the center will be shuttered in stages. Movies and performances were stopped at the end of December, and the BPI will be next to close on March 2 — followed by the museum. While tourists will have to do without the spectacular skyline view from the top until 2030, the Pompidou is keen to stress that it's not goodbye but au revoir — with its emphasis on 'meeting again.' The BPI and Pompidou's Kandinsky Library, which holds more than 18,000 printed works by major 20th and 21st-century artists, will be relocated to the Lumière building in the capital's 12th district for five years, while movies and performances will be staged at other Paris venues including the Grand Palais. Parts of the museum's permanent collection will be on show across France and the rest of the world — including the Pompidou's satellite institutions in Málaga and Shanghai — as part of its 'constellation' program. Husband and wife team Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, co-directors of the architecture firm, told CNN they were 'honored' to undertake the 'very meaningful' upgrade of the venue. There will be a panoramic rooftop deck, and the overall design will work around blending the 'interface' of the inside with what lies outdoors. Their design, which will involve extensive recycling of waste from the old building, will also feature the 'new generation hub,' a free place designed to encourage play and creativity for children aged zero to 15. Plans to 'colonize' the center's large underground car park reflect our changing world, said Moreau. 'It was made for accommodating buses so it has high ceilings and dimensions which can accommodate cinemas and galleries,' he said. 'But in Paris there's a big move against cars in the city center now, like in all European cities.' Key to the overhaul is what Moreau describes as 'transversality,' effectively meaning the various areas will be less defined and will flow into each other. 'This ideal was to have a cultural hub going through different fields, from books, cinema, performing art, sculpture, painting,' he said. Moreau Kusunoki, which will be collaborating with Mexico City-based associate designer Frida Escobedo Studio on the overhaul of the BPI, explained how this would work. It could mean 'placing art pieces in the library' or staging exhibitions connected to books in the galleries. 'This should happen not only between the library and the art collection but also in the retail space, the kids world and the basement,' Moreau said. The pair plan to conserve the 'core concept' of Pompidou as a 'factory of art' as conceived by the original architects, the late Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, who was consulted about the makeover. Commenting on the plans, Piano said in a press release: 'The project is wholly in keeping with the building's architecture while also leaving room for future renewal and maintaining its integrity.' Kusunoki said of the center: 'It's always moving, producing, being creative. This spirit is the core concept and it's going to be conserved.' But a key part of the original vision will be challenged, the couple added. 'In the '70s they dreamed of information,' said Moreau. 'The facade was designed with a giant screen and an enormous projector.' But times have changed and so has what we want from an art center, they believe. 'People were dreaming about more cars, being transported, machines etc,' said Kusunoki. 'Information was the dream — it was the future. But today we are saturated. 'Over-information has killed some part of the imagination and maybe even killed the motivation to do physical things. The fastness, the bigness, the loudness was maybe dreamed about but today we're tired by that.' Art in France has long been regarded as being 'in the public interest,' they explained, and that is at the heart of their vision. The Centre Pompidou is a 'social shelter,' which will be more about being 'slow and analogue' than Piano and Rogers intended, and it will inspire a younger generation who have become somewhat 'isolated and a bit of a victim of digital development,' according to Kusunoki. 'We are about creating a place of physical social engagement where you physically go and move your body and meet people,' said Moreau. 'The Pompidou won't be an institution anymore but an extension of the city.'
