China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center / 2A2 Design Department, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD)

Architects: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design
Area: 114000 m²
Year: 2011
Photographs:Yang Chaoying

Curated by ArchDaily

Text description provided by the architects. As the medium of the development of the exhibition design, the exhibition building possesses creativity and originality architecture of stands, directly giving service to excellent communications of culture and commerce. According to the realization of the projects, International Coal Trade Show Center, this paper encompasses a wide selection of experiment of exhibition buildings from overseas and domestic projects, to classify and summarize the characteristics of the exhibition building in the field of inner function and external appearance.

Located in the southwest direction of the intersection of Taiyuan ChangFeng Street and BinHe West Road, China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center is in the northern part of Taiyuan ChangFeng Business District. With the whole construction land area of 44.2 hectare, the first phase of the project has a total scale of about 114000 square meters, including two major components: the international exhibition center and the transaction building.

The international exhibition center has good vision and landscape advantages in each direction as it is opposite the southern culture island across the river, with Fen River landscape zone in the east, high-end residential area in the north and facing the main axis of ChangFeng Business District in the west. Based on the scale and characteristics of the project, this project follows the principle of Gathering parts into a whole and breaks through the traditional linear layout of exhibition constructions, with a good round layout in all direction facing the surrounding cities. 360 ° unified facade features emphasize the architectural symbolism and form a complete, shocking architectural form.

Traditional exhibition constructions often adopt linear layout and feature modularization and sustainable development. However, due to the limited scale and only 50000 square meters’ architecture requirement to form a complete and unified architectural modeling, this project adopted the plane arrangement scheme of annular linkage. The unique layout can achieve seamless connection of exhibition halls so that adjacent exhibition halls can be flexibly combined to be used either as a single one or a combined one. If the entire internal space of the project is open to use, the project will become the world’s largest single pavilion at present. The enclosing and opening, purity and brilliancy of the central exhibition hall has sublimated the wholeness of space, imperceptibly shaping the calm and grand ethos of the exhibition hall space.

China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center / 2A2 Design Department, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) - Facade — © Yang Chaoying

The exhibition center is covered under the vaulted roof and the height of standard pavilions gradually increases from the periphery to the center, with the clear height of the lowest point 12m which has met the basic needs of general exhibitions. The central hall, with the clear height of the lowest point 20m, can hold large-scale exhibitions for special exhibits. Each exhibition hall of the exhibition center is covered under the spherical roof, forming a non-homogenized headroom space to provide flexibility for diverse exhibitions.

Annular plane layout determines that the internal traffic still uses annular circulation design. Unlike traditional seeing-displaying interaction mode, the central annular corridor and the annular circulation layout converge the traffic lines linking all the exhibition halls, end to end, round and smooth, seamless; To combine registration hall and various pavilions, the main entrance of the exhibition center and sub-entrances of each pavilion are set in radial pattern in the periphery of the construction. When exhibitions are being held, the peripheral loop outside the exhibition hall is the main flow distribution area; while during the preparation phase of exhibition, the 30-meter-wide loop is used as a cargo area and people walk under the building eaves and internal loop. This complex transportation design is more suitable for the features of small and medium sized exhibition centers because of its convenience and land conservation.

The exhibition center uses China’s largest individual area of large-span spiral dome pipe truss roof with the span of the main structure 87m, the diameter of outer annular column axis grid 229m and the diameter of inner annular column axis grid 45m. Two-circled annular colonnades support the huge circular roof, forming a super-scale internal column-free space to meet the needs of the exhibition functions. The structure pipe trusses on the roof are linked together, showing a two-way curved radial arrangement.

The glass daylighting roofs of the central exhibition hall firstly use new cable network and cable dome combined support structure. The lightsome cable structure system combining with sunshade shutters, with glass as roof building envelope, shows a delicate high-tech style and achieves perfect unity of technology and art. Meanwhile, in striking contrast to the surrounding rough steel roof system, the prominent position of the central exhibition hall is further highlighted, with the whole interior space gradation more distinct.

Under the peripheral awning of the exhibition center, 48 pieces “air deflector optical information integrated functional leaf blades” are designed in terms of the principle of air convection. Firstly, the leaf blades effectively create pleasant "microclimate" in the flow circulation area around the pavilion; secondly, the LED light source matrix inlaid in the leaf blades make them also 48 giant information dissemination screens; thirdly, floodlighting system is installed in the bottom of leaf blades and top grooves. Serving multiple purposes, the versatile blade device not only technically solves many problems, but also, in the aesthetic aspect of the construction, adds vibrant and flexible elements.

The transaction building is located in the northeast of China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center’s central park, facing ChangFeng West Street in the east and opposite LiHua Mansion, echoing WanGuo City MOMA at a distance in the north, having celebration square capable of assembly for ten thousand of people in the south and the exhibition center-the main building of the whole park in the west. As an important component of China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center, the transaction building provides important functional space of business, transaction, conference, reception and so on for the operation of the transaction center. The transaction building comprises two round circular annexes and one rectangle tower, 23 floors on the ground and one floor underground, with the overall floorage about 56000 square meters and the building height 99.95m.

This project adopts strict Modulus Control System of Finished Surface in design, striving to make unified control on plane, façade and detailed size. The basic modulus of the tower is 9m, with side span 4.5m, sub modulus 1.5m. The hoop modulus of annex’s large circle hoop modulus is 12 °, with the sub modulus 6 °, 3 °, 2 °, 1 °, and radial modulus 9m. The hoop modulus of the semicircular annex is 20 °, with the sub modulus 10 °, 4 °, 2 °, and radial modulus 9.50m. The basic modulus of standard layer is 1.50m, with column grid 9m, grid control modulus 1.50m, the outer wall modulus 1.50m, interior trim-use module partition system 1.5m, 3m, ceiling-use module panels 0.75m and pavage-use module flooring 0.75m.

Air Exchanger. Building external facade curtain wall system uses a unified vertical texture and the prominent trapezoidal cross-section component is our self-developed "air exchanger" system through the superficial perforated aluminum of which the outdoor natural wind enters into the wall and then into the interior via internal open window. Insect nets and railings are installed inside the air exchanger to ensure the comfort and safety of use after opening.

The opening fan of air exchanger is flat open inward, with its height 3.6m, width 0.4m, and aluminum plate surface filled with insulation material inside. After opening, from the interior perspective, garbled vertical dislocation effect is formed in harmony with interior decor. As a result of the application of air exchanger for ventilation in the whole building, windows are of no need to open and the effect of architectural modeling is not influenced.

The rain pipes and illuminating lines are also hidden inside the cavity of air exchanger to make a simple and pure building façade effect. In addition, LED light bands are inlaid in the grooves set outside the ventilator resulting in a significant reduction in electricity consumption and a full manifestation of façade texture at night through lighting design, which fully embodies the symbolism and high-tech features of the construction.

Landscape. The project emphasizes the design idea of the integration of landscape and architecture by designing sunken garden in the south of the annex and connecting with the outdoor ground through green plants and sloping ground to form "emerged" landscape effects, not only improving the physical environment of underground space, but also extending the positive space of "natural growth" of the construction.