Baiyun International Convention Center Guangzhou (Chine)

The congress center is located in Guangzhou. It is one of most thriving cities in the south of China. The pearl river delta is a prime location for commerce and trade, within the protective embrace of the Baiyun mountains. Guangzhou is presently affected by exponential growth. In an attempt to consequently reorganize the city, the former airport is assigned to become a new northern city center. The project of the BICC acts as the initiator and motor for this new development. An urban highway separates the nature resort from the city and the building site.  Despite this fracture, the site has enormous qualities and potential. It is a location where the historical dialogue between city and the surrounding mountains can be restored.

Considering this context, the concept of the project is ‘to weave mountain and town’.  Classical congress centers are usually designed as black boxes. They are closed and detached objects. For us, in contrary, contemporary conference centers need to be interactive and anchored in the local context. We proposed to divide the program in several volumes. Nature and the presence of mountains become part of the new urban center. The new volumes appear as extensions of the mountain and a system of eco-bridges interweave mountain and city in a complete landscape concept.

The Chinese context required a specific design-process. Together with CITIC we won the international competition in August 2005. Only one month later we had to be in Guangzhou with a team of specialists. The design process en building process where fully overlapping. For example while we were still designing the foundation works already started. The final design and the construction -the 300 000m² of program- were finished only one and a half year later.