“The PEX Strasbourg unifies pre existing isolated and dissented architectures and offers at the same time a symbolic order, a structured gate to Wuchen neighbourhood. It is like a modern temple, a suspended experience settling new alternative to exhibition experiences.”
Exhibition center Strasbourg
Clement Blanchet sketches for OMA
The chosen layout offers remarkable urban, architectural and social potentialities that contribute to PEX’s economic performance.
Urban Potentials :
Instead of a linear facade without beginning trend that would result from the alignment of the halls, we propose a compact foundation of a strong, controlled, intelligible urban space. The PEX takes again the classic figure of the urban place. In Strasbourg, the places (Kleber, Republic, Bordeaux) were the anchor points of the development phases of the city. In the 21st century, the public space generated by the PEX structure the development of the future business district of Wacken. The PEX unifies, puts order in a distended territory : the colonnade which borders the halls defines this order. It is a form that integrates, works '“with” and not “against” existing structures. The hall 1 dialogue with the PMC, prolongs the architectural figure. The Hilton hotel becomes like a complementary program of the PEX.
Architecture potential :
Because the PEX is in town, because it will be one of the essential constituents of the Wacken neighbourhood, its appearance can only be dictated by technical and functional considerations. So we wanted to give the PEX the symbolic dimension, even emotional, of an urban public building. A posed, serene architecture suitable to inscribe in the long term an urban building. Great importance was given to the definition of the envelopes, in order to give each hall an identity of its own. Because it is in town, the PEX is contextual rigorously Miesienne any of the facade of Hall 1 on rue Herrenscmidt, Tivoli street garden ensuring vis à vis pacified for residents; wood facade of halls 3 and 4 facing the Hilton. With its envelope made of large transparent panels, hall 2 becomes the emblem of the PEX : the day, the city enters the PEX, at night it is a luminous block 130 meters long, a signal in the city.
Social Potentials :
With the implementation of the PEX in the city, the activities that take place there become again urban activities, factors of animation, social life. The PEX offers new conditions to promote and develop this interweaving of the event and the city : largely glazed facades, large terrace on halls 3 and 4, hanging garden of hall 1. The choice to bring the halls back to the ground expands again these possibilities : for big events it is all the public space of the “cloister” including if necessary the Herrenscmidt street, for the occasion closed to the circulation, which can be mobilised. These many additional high added value spaces also anticipate the future needs of th ePEX and will limit future land purchase needs.
credits
Architects : OMA France (Clément Blanchet)
Client : La CUS
Nature of the operation : Competition MOP law
Realised in 2013
Status : lost competition
Site : Strasbourg, quartier Wacken
Program : 45,000 m2 (exhibition center, conference rooms, restaurant)
Exact assignment : associate and Director in charge of the OMA competition
team composition
Co-architect : Heintz Kehr
Engineering : Egis Bâtiment
Sustainability : Egis concept
Acoustics : DHV
Landscape : D’ici là paysage
Scenography : Ducks