This 3,000,000 SF convention and conference center is a design proposal for an invited competition. Located the city of Zhengzhou, the 8th oldest city in China, this new convention and conference center creates a meaningful civic building that establishes new connections within a historically significant city. The project includes 176,000 SM of continuous exhibition space, with 2 levels that provide areas over120 M in length to accommodate a large range of events. The outdoor exhibition hall is located on the 2nd floor to host visitors in a manageable area while also providing a large and flexible exhibition area. The continuous outer ring lobby with the inner ring conference and exhibition functions allows visitors to conveniently and quickly access the building and conference and exhibition halls. Escalators provide quick access to the 2nd floor for additional conference rooms and exhibition halls.
Public Front Door
The design rethinks the traditional convention center configuration. A typical convention center is arranged as a linear bar that bifurcates public and private space. On one side the “public front door” –prefunction spaces accessed by the public; on the other side, service and back of house support space. This split arrangement creates a building with an assigned “good side” and a “bad side”. By taking this arrangement and bending it back on itself, the design creates a building in which the public access and prefunction space continuously face outwards while the support space is continuously on the back—hidden from view. This configuration produces a great civic building—one which welcomes the public from all sides.
One Linked Building
In a typical convention center one must travel a long distance to get from one end to the other. This makes access to all the halls very inconvenient. By wrapping the building around to create one linked building—the travel distances are immediately shortened. This simple move shortens travel distances —making it a convenient, compact, user-friendly facility.
Site characteristics/constraints
The site’s unique conditions provide an opportunity to craft a setting and space for this new civic building. The convention center’s design creates anchors within the existing urban context that bridge the adjacent high-speed railway station with downtown.
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