Exhibition Halls

An exhibition centre is a central focus of a city's economic life, and in many cases a unique expression of its image. For this reason, as well as offering adequate space and infrastructure, it must make a strong, clearly recognizable architectural statement. Over the past couple of decades, new technology and globalization have transformed trade fairs: today they are not so much markets as forums for the exchange of information and contacts. This new volume in the Construction and Design Manual series spotlights twenty-two exemplary European buildings that have overcome the resulting architectural challenges. It also includes an overview of the cultural history of European trade fairs, and an interview on successful exhibition-centre design with one of the world's leading specialists in this area of architecture.
Clemens F. Kusch, born in Rome in 1963. He studied architecture at the University of Venice, where he gained his doctorate in 1993 and has subsequently been a visiting professor. Kusch has been closely involved in relations between German and Italian architects, for example as a contact architect for German firms such as gmp von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (Hamburg), for the curators of the Venice Biennale and as a correspondent for German newspapers. Since 2009, he has coordinated the joint German-Italian project for the reconstruction of the Berliner Schloss.