OMA to build major convention centre in Toulouse, France
07/07/2011.
by OMA [TOULOUSE] France
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
By OMA© All rights reserved
Surpassing three submissions by internationally-renowned competitors, the project, led by OMA's director of French projects Clément Blanchet, will be completed by 2016. Blanchet commented: "This project is not only about architecture, but rather infrastructure. It's a condenser for diversity, a machine that can promote an infinite amount of possibilities."
Rather than spreading across the entire available site – a patchwork of open fields and sporadic developments – OMA chose to designate a "virtuous" strip, 2.8 kilometers long and 320 metre wide, crossed by the RD902 highway. The strip will act as a zone for future developments and link the river Garonne at one extreme and the Airbus A380 factory on the other. In this strip, PEX is a 660 metre long, 24 metre high structure, both monumental in its horizontal scale and subtle in its overall impact.
PEX consists of three parallel bands: the multi-function Event Hall, with a massive doorway allowing performances to spread outdoors; a 40,000m2 column-free Exhibition Hall; and, in the middle band, a 160,000m2 parking silo. Instead of banishing parking underground or pushing it to the periphery of the site, parking ramps are visible through glass partitions from inside the halls. The massive structure of PEX is a simple and flexible three-dimensional grid, providing a plug-in system for exhibitors and facilities.
In 2010 OMA also won the competition for a major new library, the Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale (BMVR), in Caen, France. The project will be OMA's first public building in France.
By OMA© All rights reserved
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practising architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia.
OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.
OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015); G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (2014); Shenzhen Stock Exchange (2013); De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), New Court, the headquarters for Rothschild Bank in London (2011); Milstein Hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (2011); and Maggie's Centre, a cancer care centre in Glasgow (2011). Earlier buildings include Casa da Música in Porto (2005), Seattle Central Library (2004), and Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003).