XIANYANG EXPO CONGRESS

In light of the Xi’an metropolitan area’s aspirations to become a cosmopolitan city, the expansion towards Xianyang will include a substantial number of large scale city functions. In a design that strongly relates to the Qin Dynasty heritage of this area, GOLDSMITH conceived a large scale expo congress underground, like an ‘inverted’ royal palace.The virtual 100.000m2 groundscraper is carved out from underneath a versatile city park. Combining and integrating these otherwise separate functions into one plot like a stacked landscape is both highly specific and efficient. It anticipates on the prevention of large surface of endless facades, loading docks and empty parking lots between expo set-ups and provides an exchange between building- and park facilities regarding large visitor numbers. The congress expo has the characteristics of a royal palace. The large expo halls are organised around two axis that consist of large entrance stairs and patio gardens. In the heart of the building, a large underground hall overlooks a number of congress halls that are excavated out of the epicentre. A system of hallways and large sliding doors provide an adaptive attribute to the expo levels above. Food courts are organised around the inner patio gardens, expo loading docks are placed in the outer circulation zone. Car parking and two bus terminals are organised underneath the expo halls and entrance stairs.