Sometimes in the early stages of a design project, an unfortunate physical similarity goes unnoticed until someone coins an unforgettable phase that captures it. I’ve seen perfectly lovely design concepts rejected because of this peculiar phenomenon.
Fortunately in this case, the citizens of Metz, France, seem to like the fact that their new museum, the Pompidou-Metz by architect Shigeru Ban, looks to their mayor like a “smurf house” (one supposes he would have actually said it in French: “chez les Schtroumpfs”).
Via the New York Times.
