Fair premises resulting from a 2019 competition – in the city of Liège, in Belgium’s French-speaking Walloon Region – have opened on the banks of the river Meuse. A work of the Navarrese practice of Francisco Mangado, in collaboration with the Belgian firm Archipelago | baev, the new exhibition and convention center was designed in a way that tackled the problem of crowds during very specific spans of time, and also that of enabling fast and efficient organization of exhibition spaces, minimizing movements and montage times.

The square where the entrance is located regenerates the immediate urban context, and can itself be used for exhibits. The visitor steps into the foyer that opens out to the plaza, and from here on, the floor plan presents a central arrangement of all the halls, which can therefore be easily and quickly joined or separated. Excluded from this central joint arrangement is a 1,000-square-meter hall at the south end of the plaza.

Photos: ©Ville de Liège - Schmitt-GlobalView