Renowned London based architect, Zaha Hadid has been selected to design the new Cairo Expo City, together with global multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold.
The winning design for Cairo Expo City delivers a unique facility for Cairo––a 450,000 square metre, state-of-the-art city for exhibitions and conferences, located between the centre of Cairo and the city's airport. The project comprises a major international exhibition and conference centre with business hotel. A further office tower and a shopping centre are also proposed.
The project is one of great significance for Cairo, a city which is undergoing revitalization. "This is a truly national project for Egypt." said Sherif Salem, CEO of the GOIEF (General Organization of International Exhibitions and Fairs). "The current exhibition halls for Cairo do not meet the standards now required by the international conference and exhibition industry. With this exceptional design by Zaha Hadid Architects, Cairo will be among the world's top cities for conferences and fairs, able to cater for the widest variety and size of events."
Architect Zaha Hadid explained, the undulating fluid forms of the Cairo Expo City design were inspired by the natural topography of the Nile valley. "As the exhibition spaces require the greatest degree of flexibility, we wanted to ensure that all the public spaces and formal composition of Cairo Expo City relate to the surrounding Egyptian landscape," said Hadid. "Along the great rivers of the region, most particularly the Nile, there is a powerful dynamic - a constant flow between the water and the land - which extends to incorporate the neighboring buildings and landscapes. For the Cairo Expo City design, we worked to capture that seamlessness and fluidity in an urban architectural context."
Carving and sculpting processes have been used to divide the very large exhibition and conference areas required for Cairo Expo City into clusters of individual buildings that have their own formal composition, yet each building relates to the overall design. A main north-south artery is carved through the design, with secondary streams converging at the centre to ease crowd traffic during event. The movement of people within these streams informs the building entrances on the site.
Zaha Hadid Architects was shortlisted with Norwegian architecture practice Snohetta for the second phase of the competition in April. Works will begin in October this year to clear the site.
Client: GOIEF (General Organization of International Exhibitions and Fairs), Cairo
| Design | : Zaha Hadid Architects |
| Engineering | : Buro Happold, London |
| Quantity Surveyor | : Gleeds, London |
| Traffic and Logistics | : Buro Happold, London |
| Built Area | : 450,000sqm (exhibition halls, conference center and mixed-use areas) |
| Height of Towers | : 33 and 31 stories |
