Centrepompidoumetz Today marks the beginning of construction on the new Centre Pompidou-Metz, an extension of the Pompidou Centre in the town of Metz, France. Oddly costume-like, coincidence?

From the Telegraph: "The building that Ban has designed for Metz was partially inspired by a Chinese peasant’s hat which the architect found in a Parisian market. To Ban, the woven bamboo of the hat suggested a kind of architectural canopy which set him on a train of thought that eventually led to a vast, luminescent, conical roof that will tie the various elements of the new Pompidou together. Ninety metres wide, this sinuous crown will be made up of a timber frame woven into a hexagonal lattice and then coated in a fibreglass membrane topped with a layer of Teflon.

"It was not so much the shape of the hat that interested me but the way that it was made," says Ban, talking at his temporary European office perched on the roof of the original Pompidou Centre. "It was not only the pattern but the structure itself, which is very light but can span big distances.

Read more here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/10/30/baban30.xml