- Zaha Hadid Architects planning new hall 3A at NürnbergMesse
- Area of Nürnberg exhibition site grows to 170,000 m²
- New options for use for own and guest events
Dr. Roland Fleck (right) and Peter Ottmann (left), both Managing Directors of NürnbergMesse GmbH, presenting Zaha Hadid's design for the new hall 3A.
NürnbergMesse is planning its newest hall together with the internationally renowned Zaha Hadid Architects. The ambitious completion date for hall 3A with more than 8,000 m² is the beginning of 2014 – in time for the Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair. The construction costs are 34 million euros for the hall and another two million euros for the necessary infrastructure in the immediate surroundings. That is, a total investment volume of 36 million euros. “The attractive building will function as a hinge between the buildings in the east and south of the exhibition site in future. It will do full justice to the architectural standards at this outstanding location,” promise NürnbergMesse Managing Directors, Dr. Roland Fleck and Peter Ottmann, adding: “On completion of hall 3A, NürnbergMesse will have more than 170,000 m² of display space to offer in halls and foyers.”
NürnbergMesse has just ended the strongest first quarter in the history of the company. The Nürnberg company set new standards in 2012 with more than 645,000 m² of gross rented space: “Our continuous growth and the necessity for flexible room planning for our customers and ourselves make the construction of another hall necessary,” explains Peter Ottmann. “So the new building will particularly make three things possible,” says Dr. Roland Fleck: “First our display space will reach 170,000 m² in future, second we will create the necessary development potential of the site for the large-scale events like the Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair, or the exhibition duo fensterbau/frontale and HOLZ-HANDWERK, and later SPS IPC Drives as well, and third, with the assistance of Zaha Hadid Architects, we are setting an architectural milestone for NürnbergMesse and the whole metropolitan region!”
Award-winning architecture as standard
Zaha Hadid Architects, who are known for their spectacular and extravagant building designs, have been appointed to plan the design of the Nürnberg exhibition company’s latest construction measures. This is a premiere for both sectors: NürnbergMesse is working with consultant architects of world standing for the first time in its history, and when the hall fills up with exhibitors and visitors for the first time at the International Toy Fair in February 2014, it will rank as the first in the world to be built to plans from the award-winning architects.
Some of the most recent of the many international projects of Zaha Hadid Architects are the Aquatics Centre for the Olympic Games in London, the MAXXI Art Museum (Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo) in Rome and the Guangzhou Opera House. Their best-known buildings in Germany so far include the central building of the BMW works in Leipzig (2004) and the building for the Wolfsburg Science Museum phæno (2005) – both winners of the RIBA European Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Design for dynamic development
“This new building will enable us to continue the successful triad for real estate at NürnbergMesse in the future, namely architectural excellence, homely functionality, and all this at strictly controlled cost,” says Managing Director Dr. Roland Fleck with the details of hall 3A in mind. For NürnbergMesse, the architects are planning a day-lit hall with a length of some 95 metres and a width of 85 metres. The interior is characterized by wave-shaped slats on the 13 to 20 metre high ceiling, which slopes slightly to the south. The hall will be spanned over 75 metres by a steel-framed construction (triangular truss) without supports.
The new building has glazed facades down to ground level on two sides, which are characterized on the south side by arched and converging slatted or treetop-style fans. These grow from the inside – i.e. out of the hall ceiling – to the outside on the one hand and serve as solar protection on the other. The outside walls of the building overhang slightly on the south side in the area of the distinctive southeast corner. “Especially the large transparent facade of hall 3A does real credit to the exhibition and congress venue, which is the home of fensterbau/frontale, the world-leading exhibition for windows, doors and facades,” says a delighted Gerald Weiß, Executive Director Facility Management and Member of the Management Board of NürnbergMesse.
Design meets sustainability: NürnbergMesse GmbH ensures optimized energy efficiency in the design, construction and operation of the new hall 3A.
The spacious new hall with its large headroom is suitable for organizing all kinds of exhibitions. According to Managing Director Peter Ottmann, “It is fully operational as a separate building and is completely integrated into the exhibition site via gangways connecting it to the existing hall 4A and thus to the east (Ost) entrance.”
Energy-efficient “eye-catcher” –operation in time for the International Toy Fair 2014
“The new exhibition hall promises to be an impressive building. After all, as corner building at the entrance to the site from the south east, it will influence visitors’ first impression of our site in future,” Dr. Roland Fleck and Peter Ottmann are agreed: “Design now certainly goes hand in hand with sustainability at NürnbergMesse. A newly introduced low-energy standard ensures optimized energy efficiency. We are endeavouring to obtain our first certification by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen (German Association for Sustainable Building) with this exhibition hall.” The new building is planned for completion in time for the International Toy Fair at the beginning of 2014.
Functional site as guarantee for competitiveness
What began in1973 with halls 1 to 9 and 60,000 m² of display space now counts as one of Europe’s largest and most modern exhibition sites. Dynamic corporate development and the needs of large customers headed by the International Toy Fair ensured organic boosts in the growth of the site to more than 160,000 m² at the last expansion. NürnbergMesse has invested some 670 million euros in the Nürnberg exhibition and congress venue and its further growth since the company was founded.
