A pioneer of the "high-tech" architecture movement, Richard Rogers changed the look of modern cities around the world with radical ideas like putting elevators and air conditioning ducts outside of his buildings.
Rogers received architecture's top award, the Pritzker Prize, in 2007Image: Udo Hesse/akg-images/picture alliance
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British architect Richard Rogers, celebrated for designing some of the world's most famous buildings including Paris' Centre Pompidou and London's Millennium Dome, has died aged 88, his spokesman announced on Sunday.
The spokesman said he had "passed away quietly" on Saturday evening, but did not give the cause of death.
Rogers is considered one of the pioneers of the "high-tech" architecture movement, noted for structures incorporating industrial materials such as glass and steel.
"Through Richard, as a young graduate, I learnt that architecture was about much more than the design of buildings, its social and political impacts were equally important,'' said Ivan Harbour, a senior partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the architectural firm Rogers founded.
"He was not an archetypical architect, but he was a unique and wonderful human being," he added.
Paris' Centre Pompidou turns 40
It's a cultural machine. The Centre Pompidou has altered Paris' city center. Rejected at first, it is now one of Paris' most beloved attractions along with the Eiffel Tower, welcoming three million visitors per year.
The 4th arrondissement is located at the heart of downtown Paris and has always been a hub. Starting in the 19th century, the old market halls delivered groceries to Parisians. In the 1960s, they were torn down, as were many homes in the Beaubourg district. The shopping mall "Les Halles" and the Centre Pompidou (in the background of the photo) were built in their place.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Samson
Georges Pompidou's project
Just a few months after being elected as president of France, Georges Pompidou (pictured) decided that the cultural center would be built. It was meant to be one-of-a-kind in the world and unite all forms of art under one roof. Inside, visitors can explore literature as well as visual art and cinema.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Revolutionary design
For the first time in France, Pompidou held an international architecture contest with a prominent jury including Oscar Niemeyer; 681 entries were submitted. Brit Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano of Italy (above) caught the eye of the jury. Their Centre Pompidou was conceived not as a temple to high-brow culture, but as a building for everyone. This democratic principle inspired their entire design.
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Parking lot turned cultural center
The Centre Pompidou was built from 1970 to 1977. The construction site took up 18,000 square meters (over 193,000 square feet) in the heart of Paris. The dilapidated district of Beaubourg had been torn down in the 1960s. The Centre Pompidou was erected on a former parking lot. The site is pictured here in 1975.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Steel and glass
The functional aspects of the building were emphasized by painting the pipes with bright colors. The architecture was based on a simple idea: A metal frame that is visible from the inside and the outside holds the building together. The façade was strengthened with additional cross beams; the space between them was filled with glass walls.
Image: picture-alliance/Imagno/Votava
Building without concrete
Early on, the raw design revealing naked pipes and bars was met with criticism. Many thought the Centre Pompidou was ugly and called it the "Notre Dame of Pipes" or an "oil refinery." Each floor had a viewing platform and offered a marvelous panorama of the city. The thick, colorful pipes, which are more reminiscent of a power plant than a museum, are its trademark.
Image: picture-alliance/Leemage
Escalator with a view
Riding on the escalator has never been so much fun. In the Centre Pompidou, they line the outer façade of the building and connect the six floors. The advantage is that no interior space goes to waste and the transparent case around the escalators allows for a magnificent view of the city. .
Image: Getty Images/AFP/L. Venance
A square full of life
Architects Piano and Rogers considered the square around the museum just as important as the interior. They wanted to make it a place that was both urban and pedestrian-friendly - a spot for street artists and strollers. If the square were an exhibition, the people would be its exhibits. That was also part of the architects' democratic design: Here, everyone is invited to realize themselves.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Demarthon
Museum within a museum
Georges Pompidou wanted to compete with New York as an art hub, which is why he had a museum of modern art housed in the Centre Pompidou. It wasn't an easy task for art conservationists to present the works in rooms without walls and with a lot of daylight. That's why a museum with closed rooms had to be built within the center.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Saget
Education for all
The idea was to make culture accessible to as many people as possible. A library is one large part of the center. It spans over 15,000 square meters and three floors and receives up to 4,000 visitors per day. All of the books are displayed; there is no archive. There is room for some 2,200 people to read, research or learn languages simultaneously in the library.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Cinema and photography
Some three million visitors come to the Centre Pompidou every year. It is one of the most-visited sites in Paris and was one of the first cultural centers in Europe to have stayed open until 10:00 pm for the past 40 years. On the underground floors, there are two cinemas and a photo gallery comprised of 100,000 prints.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Second Centre Pompidou in France
In 2010, a second location of the Centre Pompidou opened in Metz. It was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and most of the artworks housed there come from the original center in Paris. Works by Picasso, Matisse and Miró can now be viewed in the small town of 120,000 residents. The aim is not only to democratize but also to decentralize culture.
Image: Getty Images
Export to Spain
Outside of France, there is also a Centre Pompidou in Málaga, Spain. French concept artist Daniel Buren decorated it with colorful glass cubes. The site used to be home to a shopping center that went bankrupt. The Centre Pompidou has committed to staying there until 2020, but the contract can be extended.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
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Path to prominence
Born in 1933 to an Anglo-Italian family in Florence, Italy, Rogers moved to England before World War II.
The modern architect rose to prominence for his radical designs. He completed some 400 commissions and won a series of awards for his works, including the 2007 Pritzker Prize.
He is the co-creator of France's Centre Pompidou, a futuristic block of scaffolding-like metal pipes and glass walls, which he designed with Italian architect Renzo Piano.
His other well-known designs include Strasbourg's European Court of Human Rights, the 3 World Trade Center in New York and the Lloyd's of London building.
Rogers designed a light-flooded office complex at Potsdamer Platz in BerlinImage: Global Travel Images/picture alliance
He was also responsible for international airport terminals in Madrid and London's Heathrow. In addition, he helped design Potsdamer Platz offices in Berlin.
Creating 'socially inclusive environments'
As a child, Rogers was diagnosed with dyslexia. He later trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London before earning a master's degree from Yale University in the US state of Connecticut.
Rogers had once credited his parents, a doctor and an artist, as well as his cousin, post-war Italian architect Ernesto Rogers, with inspiring his interest in architecture.
"They instilled me with a clear understanding of how, if we build well, we can create a socially inclusive environment,'' he told the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. "This has helped to drive my work.''
