Assembly of the doubly curved roof structure for the Centre Pompidou Metz has started this week.

Almost 1,800 gluelam beams were individually CNC-fabricated by Holzbau Amann during the last six months and to the relief of everyone involved they fit perfectly. designtoproduction developed the parametric CAD-tools for planning and detailing the girder segments, starting with a reference surface of the roof geometry and ending with the detailled component geometry. Even the maximum angles the wood fibers are cut during fabrication are included in the optimization criteria, in order to ensure structural performance of the end result.

The building is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2009. A webcam on the city's website shows the daily progress.

More details on the project can be found here.