Cultural | Sports and Convention Centre | Les 2 Alps | Herault-Arnod Architectes

The request of the client was clear: the project should be in a register "traditional", knowing that what is currently considered the traditional architecture of the Alps is actually a compilation of kitsch most diverse regional styles. We have been very reluctant to accept the conditions of the order, completely outside our usual areas of interest. Rather that the leak we decided to head on issues of kitsch and decor that are the reality of contemporary construction in the mountains, so that even modern functionalist architecture of the stations is gradually dressed in veneer stone and carved wood..........more

Convention Centre Design | International Convention Centre Barcelona | Mateo Arquitectura

The Barcelona International Convention Centre consists of a large hall (15.000 m2, 80m of structural lighting) that can be divided and a block for associated services that looks out to sea. The hall is both structure and abstraction; the exterior block talks to the sea and the sky.
The structure is a musical score of reference.

The climate, the light (and opposite, shade) and sound (and its opposite, silence) have shaped the plot.
The flows (of people and of fluids that are all similar), the masses and the architecture that appears (and frequently) disappears amid them..........more

"MIC PLUS" | MILANO CONVENTION CENTER | Milan | Italy | Mario Bellini

The project, a direct commission, includes the restoration an renewal of the existing complex, followed by its extension and integration with the new part, thus creating a door open onto the Expo.
In the words of Bellini: “It is extremely rare that an architect gets the chance to bring a creation of his to life a second time. After only 11 years, the Portello exhibition complex – which I worked on between 1993 and 1997 – was in danger of ending up as industrial archaeology. But it was not to be. Thanks to a complex operation of ‘architectural surgery’, it is already destined to play a leading role in Milano Expo 2015.
The first will be the construction of a large Congress Centre in the southernmost building. This structure – overlooking the site where City Life with its already renowned skyscrapers is going to be built, is first off the blocks and issues a renewed challenge........more

Calabar Convention Center Calaba | Nigeria | Mecanoo

genius loci – spirit of place
The cultural and geographical context of Calabar (Nigeria) offered a unique opportunity for design exploration. Mecanoo created a design for the Calabar International Convention Center in an invited competition with four other international architecture practices. Mecanoo’s sensitive approach to the project interweaving the contextualsocial, economic and geographical conditions. A key factor taken into account is Calabar’s limited infrastructure: the new convention center had to be flexible, adaptable and easy to maintain. The building has to offer efficient climate control in response to the hot and humid climate of the region.

fusion of building and landscape
Mecanoo’s architectural response takes into consideration the characteristic topography of the hilly landscape and places the building within the contour of the landscape. The first gesture in the landscape is a cut that defines a grand covered esplanade. This gesture creates a main entrance and runs through the entire complex from north to south. Different cuts in the landscape create various openings, as well as views to points of interest on the surrounding site. Natural daylight enters the entire complex through skylights and terraces that are punched out across the hilly roof/landscape. The earth’s cooler temperature acts as a natural cooling system for the entire complex. covered esplanade
The central esplanade functions as a main atrium for the Calabar Convention Center. This entrance expands into vast greenery which creates diverse, open, public spacesincluding gardens and plazas for open air events and other activities. The esplanade is an iconic structure that provides a strong sense of place and an appropriate response to the climate.
The various functions of the building are distributed along the esplanade. A main hall (1,500 capacity), visitor’s centre, multifunctional exhibition hall (600 capacity), exhibition centre, event rooms, meeting rooms, offices, medical facility and business centre (composed of 4 peripheral halls, which can be grouped as 1, 2 or 3 spaces) are all located on one side of the esplanade. Cafes, restaurants and shops are located on the other side. A loading bay, equipped to handle large trucks, services the entire convention centre via a straight corridor that links the entire complex.........more

South Tenerife Convention Center By AMP Arquitectos, S.L.

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Architect: AMP Arquitectos, S.L.
Location: Playa de las Américas, Adeje, Tenerife, Spain
Collaborator: Andreas Weihnacht (arquitect), Esther Ceballos (arquitect), Ana Salinas (arquitect), Rafael Hernández (master builder), Andrés Pedreño (master builder)
Project year: 2005
Strcutural Engineers: Victor Martínez, Juan José Gallardo
Services Engineers: Milián Associats S.A., Audioscan
Contractor: Congreso U.T.E.
Client: Canarias Congreso Bureau Tenerife Sur
Photographs: Hisao Suzuki & AMP arquitectos
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International Convention Center of the City of Madrid | Manuel Ocana

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Building Type: Convention Center
LOCATION: Paseo de la Castellana. Madrid
PROJECT: 2007
PROMOTER: Ayto de Madrid
ARCHITECTS: Manuel Ocaña, and Alfredo Payá Subarchitecture (Bañón Carlos Andrés Silanes, Fernando Valderrama)
CONSULTANTS: José Carrasco Hortal, structures
PARTNERS: Miguel María del Rey Colon, Laura Culiañez, Roberto Gonzalez, Javier Iniesta and Lucía Jiménez Martínez.
Built surface: 69,069 m2

A difficult site. A vast facility behind four colossal towers that rise along the first line of Madrid’s most important thoroughfare. A matter of content and figure of urban scale.

The convention center must have a presence able to interact with those four towers measuring 250 meters in height, ensuring that the whole complex show synergy. The links of dependence of the new convention center with the environment must be hyperstatic, links of kind and polite mutual dependence. The building proposed for the CICCM and the setting in which it is located shall be different expressions of a same common essence. Making reference to Einstein’s Universal Gravitation Law, the new CICCM will be a building that ‘takes hold of’ the space to tell it how it must distort itself; and that space shall in turn take hold of the building to tell it how it must move. The object accepts and thus works with an extreme geometry but is not ‘tied’ to it. It is a manifesto of communication between architecture and its context and between the context and architecture. The convention center and a group of towers that appropriate and pervade one another.

The right measure of courtesy leads to concealing most of the program in a camouflaged building, drawing attention to a silvery, bright star that explodes and blends into the surrounding landscape; a star that from point to point measures as much as the towers and whose cantilevered arms (some of over 100 meters) and compensated by a spiral, have a structure whose horizontal display is as powerful as that of the towers’ vertical one. The star – that will be taken up by the congress area – rests on the building-crater, a sort of partially buried elliptical hangar clad in red volcanic rock that lights up with radial glass clefts and that accommodates the areas for exhibitions and catering. Pedestrian access to the convention center is through the star and this metallic mountain, whereas vehicles access the precinct from above and inside.

Text and images from: Manuel Ocana

Leon Convention Centre,Leon, Spain | Dominique Perrault

International competition
Project in progress
2005|2009

Icelandic National Concert & Conference Centre, Reykjavik, Iceland by Henning Larsen Architects + Olafur Eliasson

Client: Austurhofn, East Harbour Project
Construction period: 2005-09
Gross floor area: 23,000 m2
Construction value: 161 mill. EUR
Type of assignment: 1st prize, international competition
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Dalian International Conference Center, China- Coop Himmelb(l)au

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was selected as winner of the invited competition in August 2008 out of entries by Zaha Hadid Architects or gmp von Gerkan, Marg und Partner amongst others.

Bangalore International Convention Centre | Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design

"An International Convention Centre proposal by Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design in Bangalore, India. The feature of this project is how the architect transformed India’s traditional industry - silk weaving into architecture and created a series of spatial sequences in this project."
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