NürnbergMesse sets architectural standards
in the exhibition and congress landscape

December 2010
Ot/Zi
Redesign by kadawittfeldarchitektur
With some 1.2 million visitors and 120 international exhibitions and
congresses a year, the NürnbergMesse Group is one of Europe’s
leading exhibition companies. As a result of the growing numbers of
visitors and exhibitors, the exhibition site has been extended step by
step since the 1970s and today presents a varied landscape of
individual halls and congress and administration buildings. The
redesign by kadawittfeldarchitektur now gives this historically
developed conglomerate a uniform architectural face that will become
the distinctive visiting card of the Nürnberg exhibition and congress
venue.
“The variety of themes in the exhibition industry demands great flexibility in
thinking and acting,” says Managing Director Bernd A. Diederichs,
explaining the NürnbergMesse success model. The Aachen architects
Klaus Kada and Gerhard Wittfeld have combined this variety spatially under
the roof of an architectural language that integrates the existing buildings
and responds specifically to the needs of visitors and exhibitors. Altogether
some 47 million euros have been invested in the building extensions, the
redevelopment measures and the reorganization of the Mitte (central) area.
“Inspiration and well-being, knowledge concentration and business success
were also our top priority here,” says Bernd A. Diederichs. On completion of
the construction measures, the architecture at NürnbergMesse presents a
modern, future-orientated platform for events in 2011 that creates the
optimum setting for these goals and provides a welcome for visitors.
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Dynamic as architectural concept
The dynamic slatted roof hovers like a large horizontal sail 17 metres above
the large forecourt of the Mitte exhibition area. Beneath the elegant
construction is a loggia sheltered from the weather that bundles the
streams of visitors from the car parks, taxi rank and underground station
and combines surrounding exhibition and congress buildings dating from
various construction phases to form one visual unit. Last but not least, the
new roof with its significant pointed end also acts as a landmark for the
centre of the exhibition site.
“Architecture should fulfil a function without having to explain it. Whether I
feel at home is something I perceive intuitively, not intellectually,” says
Gerhard Wittfeld, explaining the principle of the design. Visitors can find
their way around the new forecourt instinctively: the 250-metre-long slatted
roof leads them to the entrance to the Mitte congress centre, and it’s
membrane cushions also cover the central entrance hall, which opens up
behind the glass facade. The facades of the two adjacent hexagonal
administration buildings from the 1970s have been thoroughly renovated to
create an elegant and timeless envelope that harmonizes with the modern
ensemble.
Outlooks and views
Openness and transparency are the main characteristics of the day-lit
entrance hall, which replaces a previous building. The new 17-metre high
entrance to the Mitte congress centre is a versatile communication area
that covers 6,300 square metres and forms the lively heart of the exhibition
site. Views of the open adjoining exhibition and congress areas dating from
the 1970s and views to the outside to the forecourt and the north side of the
park simplify orientation – the whole dimension of NürnbergMesse opens
up from the entrance area. Central functions like information and
registration counters, cloakrooms and a bistro divide the area into individual
zones distributed like islands on the anthracite floor of cast stone.
NürnbergMesse sets architectural standards
Press release – December 2010
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The major attraction of the new entrance building is an elegant, futuristiclooking building that protrudes into the spacious interior area like a large,
angular sculpture: the new Brüssel hall. Sloping surfaces and edges
characterize its distinctive architecture, which rises above the ground floor
like a cut crystal. “We have derived the design style from the hexagonal
pattern of the existing building and created a separate, dynamic
architecture from this,” explains Gerhard Wittfeld of kadawittfeldarchitektur.
A surrounding band of anthracite-tinted windows and similarly enamelled
glass enhances the stringent black & white look of the building envelope.
The spacious open staircase of white terrazzo tiles takes up the dynamic of
sloping surfaces and triangles and accompanies the visitor into the open
foyer of around 540 square metres on the top floor.
The hall itself convinces with its surprisingly pleasant, almost private
atmosphere, which is supported by warm colours and soft materials and
their haptic qualities. Brüssel hall has space for around a thousand
congress participants, who have a view of the park and the entrance hall
through room-height windows. Textile panels of May green fabric line the
seven-metre high room and with their striking pattern of large irregularsized triangles cover the walls and ceilings like a jigsaw puzzle. The hall is
fitted with modern equipment and has large doors, which open onto the
front gallery for congress breaks. The view from up there is like that of a
command centre and ranges over the entire entrance hall as far as the
green area outside, the park and the central forecourt of NürnbergMesse –
an ideal position for tackling future challenges.
NürnbergMesse sets architectural standards
Press release – December 2010
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Design and technical details
Brüssel hall
Five angular supports spaced up to 30 metres apart carry the 1,800 square
metre platform of the sculptural building envelope. The reinforced concrete
construction has a weight of 6,700 tons and a supplementary steel
construction with a surrounding flange is attached to it. A staircase
connects the gallery of the hall direct to the park.
Roof construction
12 spun-concrete pillars raise the new 1,500-ton roof with a total area of
12,500 square metres to a lofty height of 17 metres. The vertical aluminium
slats are fixed to two steel supports with box girder profiles and tilted
towards the pointed end of the roof over the forecourt. Light air cushions of
ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) membranes are stretched over the
four-metre wide spaces between the slats of the 250-metre-long
construction. The cushions in the area of the entrance hall are printed with
a dot raster for solar protection purposes.
Material, engineering and energy aspects
NürnbergMesse sets new standards in terms of material, engineering and
energy aspects with the redesign of the Mitte area. The renovation of the
facades of the two existing hexagonal buildings improves the energy
consumption of these buildings. For example, insulating the outer
reinforced concrete parts massively reduced the previous thermal bridges.
Out of consideration for the available resources, the advantages of natural
air circulation are used in the 18-metre high entrance hall. Decentralized
furniture items like the water basin in the centre of the hall bring scavenging
air into the high room through their slatted side panels. Openings at the top
of the facade provide air extraction. Heat recovery principles are employed
for the ventilation of Brüssel hall and its foyer.
Sustainability aspects were also decisive in the choice of the material for
the roof construction: the air cushion area of altogether 11,000 square
metres is made of 100 % recyclable ETFE membranes. The extremely low
weight of the innovative material enabled the supporting construction to be
appreciably reduced, which resulted in massive savings in materials.
NürnbergMesse sets architectural standards
Press release – December 2010
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All construction measures were completed in only 18 months under
operational conditions. They put NürnbergMesse in the limelight with trendsetting architecture that uses its resources sensibly and with consideration
of sustainability criteria.
About the NürnbergMesse Group
NürnbergMesse is one of the 20 largest exhibition companies in the world and
among the Top Ten in Europe. The portfolio covers some 120 international
exhibitions and congresses and more than 30 sponsored pavilions at the Nürnberg
location and worldwide. Every year, some 25,000 exhibitors (international share:
33%), 805,000 trade visitors (international share: 16%) and 315,000 consumers
participate in the own, partner and guest events of the NürnbergMesse Group,
which is present with subsidiaries in China, North America, Brazil and Italy. The
group also has a network of 43 representatives operating in more than 80
countries.
Contact for press and media
Peter Ottmann, Susanne Zirkel
Tel +49 (0) 9 11. 86 06-83 15
Fax +49 (0) 9 11. 86 06-86 40
presse@nuernbergmesse.de
This and other press articles and photos of NürnbergMesse can be downloaded
free at: www.nuernbergmesse.de/press
NürnbergMesse sets architectural standards
Press release – December 2010
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