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Alternatives for new exhibition centre decided
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Huang Naili
“I CAN'T trust my ears," an excited Volkwin Marg, from Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (GMP) told reporters yesterday when an international jury announced in Wuzhou Guesthouse that his design for the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre (SZCEC) is on a shortlist of three “preferred designs".
The nine-member jury, made up of world famous architects from five countries and headed by Wu Liangyong, chairman of executive council of the City Planning Society of China, decided that the designs by GMP from Germany, Murphy/Jahn Inc from the USA and Australia's Cox Architects stand out from a total of five submissions.
The municipal government is expected to make the final selection from the three before July, when the centre's construction is slated to start.
The centre is to be built on the southern tip of the new city centre in Futian District. With a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan (US$300 million), it will occupy an area of 220,000sqm. The convention space is expected to be around 250,000sqm while that for the exhibitions will be around 120,000 to 150,000sqm, three to four times larger than the present China Hi-Tech Fair Exhibition Centre.
Lennart Grut, director of Britain-based Richard Rogers Partnership, told Shenzhen Daily that GMP is considered excellent because it highlights the use of natural light and looks like “a clear statement for the 21st century". He added that in Cox's design, the entrance to the centre is integrated into a nearby park, creating a kind of “urban market place", a characteristic which appeals to many jury members. “Murphy/Jahn stands out for its absolute simplicity," Grut concluded.
The centre is expected to be completed by the end of 2003. Insiders believe that with the operation of the centre, Shenzhen's exhibition industry can stage a powerful comeback. “The heyday for the city's exhibition industry was in the period between 1988 and 1993 when Shenzhen hosted an exhibition every three days. After that, the situation declined," said Cui Jie, with the SZCEC.
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