If an alien spaceship landed on Earth, this is how I would imagine it would look. Austrian architecture firm, Coop Himmelb(l)au won a competition to create the Dalian International Conference Center. The center is designed to “reflect the promising modern future of Dalian and its tradition as an important port, trade, industry and tourism city.” The design incorporates a public zone with shopping at ground level, a 1,900 seat theater, and a 2,500 capacity conference space situated 149ft (5m) above the entrance hall as floating spaces. Smaller conference spaces are situated around this core space. “With the Dalian International Conference Center, a hybrid city within a building will emerge,” reads the design statement. “For the technical infrastructure of the building this means, that we have to consider a huge amount of people circulating inside the building at the same time, expecting high standards in circulation and comfort as well as a state of the art building concerning high flexibility, and low energy consumption.” Sounds like they have a lot of work on their plate, but the project sure does look amazing.
Coop Himmelb(l)au’s website courtesy of e-architect