COOP HIMMELB(L)AU wins Wallpaper* Design Award 2011 in the category “Best Building Sites”

Dalian International Conference Center in China / COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Press Release, Vienna, 18 January 2011
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU‘s Dalian International Conference Center in China is winner of the Wallpaper* Design Award in the category “Best Building Sites”. The magazine Wallpaper belongs to the most influential international print media in the area of architecture and design, and is considered as trendsetter in the trade among architects, designers and other creatives.

The International Conference Center is situated in Dalian, an important port, industry, commercial and tourism center in the southernmost part of the Liaodong-Peninsula, in the Chinese province Laoning. The project with a dimension of 220m by 200m extends over 8 floors and combines numerous different functions within a single hybrid building on a total of 117,000 m²: a conference center, an opera house and an exhibition center as well as a basement with parking, delivery and disposal area. Wolf D. Prix, Design Principal of COOP HIMMEL-B(L)AU, describes the concept of the Dalian International Conference Center as the “idea to design a small city of conference and performance spaces beneath a shell-like roof. In the center is a grand 1,800 seats theater and opera house with stage and a flexible conference hall for 2,500 visitors.”

Dalian International Conference Center in China / COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Regarding the energy concept of the building Wolf D. Prix explains: “We have always realized resource-preserving concepts in our projects. Also this building in Dalian was planned according to sustainable principles, a sophisticated climatic concept, which includes for example the use of sea water for cooling, will yield 30% energy saving or CO2 reduction respectively.”

The urban development strategy for the Dalian International Conference Center aims to create a distinctive landmark at the new endpoint of the main urban axis in the future extension area of the city.

Dalian International Conference Center in China / COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Other winners in that category are Zaha Hadid Architects, Plasma Studio and Groundlab as well as Foster + Partners.

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