The New Pompidou Centre Metz in Eastern France

The New Pompidou Centre Metz in Eastern France
Paris made a bold move in 1977 by building a modern art museum wrapped in large multicoloured pipes in the heart of the city.

Now, French art authorities are planning another audacious act: a satellite of the Pompidou Centre that looks like a Chinese peasant's hat.

The Pompidou Centre Metz in eastern France, due to open in 2008, will show rotating exhibitions from the museum's 56,000-strong collection.

Only about 1,300 works can be shown at one time in the Paris museum.

The Louvre is following suit with plans to open a sister museum in the northern town of Lens in 2009.

Heading the new Pompidou's three-man design team is the award-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who drew inspiration from a conical bamboo hat.

"I bought the hat six years ago in a Chinese clothes shop in Paris when I was already thinking about ideas for roofs," he said.

The roof of the Metz museum will rise to a rounded peak at the top and have a gently rippled brim.

It will sit atop a gallery space of 10,000 sq metres (32,800 sq ft) which, like the Paris Pompidou, will have glass-panelled walls and panoramic views.

Construction of the new museum is due to start in January 2006, with the price tag estimated at �35.5m (�25m), the museum said.

The project will be funded by local, regional and national government budgets.