The building symbol of high-tech architecture has closed its doors. The Center Pompidou in Paris, the icon designed in the Seventies by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini, has started a renovation that will last five years. The reopening is scheduled for 2030, but this long pause does not mean cultural silence at all: the museum’s collections move to a network of temporary locations spread across France, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
The Center Pompidou is illuminated once before it stops The artist Cai Guo-Qiang proposed an au revoir…
Posted by Center Pompidou on Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Why the Center Pompidou is closing
The closure responds to structural needs that cannot be postponed. The building in fact needs a series of radical interventions: the facade must be completely freed from asbestos, the main structure has corrosion phenomena to be treated, the systems require energy optimization and the entire complex must be adapted to contemporary accessibility standards. The construction site, entrusted to the AIA, Moreau-Kusunoki and Frida Escobedo studios, started at the beginning of 2026 after the progressive closure of all levels of the Beaubourg.
The intervention will not be limited to the technical aspect alone, because there will also be conceptual changes. The “Métamorphose” project aims to profoundly rethink the role of the museum. The spaces will be reorganized to better accommodate visitors, the presentation of the collections will be redesigned and the Bibliothèque publique d’information will have a new layout. The objective is to give even more space to creation and reaffirm the multidisciplinary vocation of the Centre, making it a place more integrated into the city and more open to society.
How the new Pompidou will become
In 2030 the Center Pompidou will present itself as a renewed organism that wants to maintain its original identity. The initial utopia of Piano and Rogers’ project – an open, accessible, multidisciplinary museum capable of functioning as the beating heart of the neighborhood – will be re-actualized. The building will communicate more fluidly with the surrounding urban environment, just as the square in front and the famous external escalator have always done.
The architectural renewal will therefore be accompanied by a real transformation of the cultural model. The closure triggered a reflection on the very concept of museum centrality. The era of large monumental containers designed by starchitects leaves room for a different paradigm: cultural institutions are thought of as networks, no longer as isolated buildings. The physical icon disappears, but the cultural program multiplies.
Where to see the Pompidou collections
During the works, the museum’s artistic heritage will be distributed among many places spanning continents. In Paris, the Grand Palais hosts the flagship exhibitions of the programme. After the retrospective dedicated to Mohamed El Khatib and the collective Fun Palace inspired by the architectural utopia of Cedric Price, the calendar includes exhibitions on Art Brut, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, as well as a large exhibition on Henri Matisse dedicated to his last creative season between 1941 and 1954. A monographic exhibition on Francis will also arrive in 2027 Bacon.
The Bibliothèque publique d’information moved in August to the Lumière complex, in the former Bercy shopping center, in the twelfth arrondissement, a move that reshapes the geography of Parisian public reading, bringing it to a less central neighborhood but in the process of transformation.
At Massy, in the southern suburbs of Paris, the most ambitious project, the Center Pompidou Francilien, is about to open. Designed by the PCA-Stream studio, this space of 120,000 works is not a simple warehouse but a transparent laboratory. It will also house part of the Musée Picasso collection and will allow the public to witness the restorations, movements and conservation processes. The building opens towards the Blanchette park with large wooden paths, green steps and a panoramic terrace.
The Constellation program takes the collection throughout France with exhibitions and events. In Lille we saw “Pom Pom Pidou”, in Munich “Couleurs!”, in Metz an exhibition on Maurizio Cattelan, while Paris hosts an exhibition on Kandinsky at the Philharmonie.
The international offices
As mentioned, the geography of the temporary Pompidou extends far beyond the French borders. In Shanghai, the collaboration with the West Bund Museum has continued since 2019. In Brussels, in 2026, KANAL – Center Pompidou will open, a new multidisciplinary center created in the former Citroën garage. The inauguration of a center is expected in 2027 in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, symbolically positioned on the border between three nations.
Italy enters the international network with exhibition projects planned between Rome and Rovigo for the two-year period 2026-2027, marking the start of unprecedented collaborations with the museum system of our country.
What could have been a simple temporary move turned into a cultural experiment. The idea is to distribute rather than centralize, reaching different audiences in different contexts, even far from metropolitan centers. While the Beaubourg empties to renew itself, the Pompidou expands into a network of places that keeps its cultural mission alive and experiments with a more widespread and democratic museum model.
For more information, we refer you to the official website centrepompidou.fr
