Messe Düsseldorf puts Hall 1 in Operation

On Wednesday, 25 September, Messe Düsseldorf will put its new Hall 1 into operation after a 2-year construction period. The doors of the 82 m long, glazed front of the foyer will then open for the first event: expopharm, Europe’s biggest trade fair for the pharmacy sector, will – as a contracted event – mark the beginning of continuous occupancy of Hall 1 until drupa in late June 2020. K, the world’s premier trade fair for the plastics and rubber industry, will be the first proprietary event to occupy the new hall from 16 to 23 October.

“Our plans have worked out: we capitalised on the less busy trade fair cycle since summer 2017 for the construction work and now have the new hall ready to be used when our extremely busy exhibition period from autumn 2019 to summer 2020 starts,” delights Werner M. Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf who goes on to say: “This new hall with its direct connection to the new Süd/South entrance along with the conference facilities for flexible use mean we are in an ideal position. Being one of the leading international trade fair locations the optimisation of infrastructure is the be-all and end-all to us. We always focus on our customers’ needs here.”

The New Hall 1: High Standards and Flexible Use

158 m long, 77 m wide and with over 12,000 square metres of floor space without any pillars, the new Hall 1 is roughly the size of Halls 8 a and b offering 558 square metres more space than the two old Halls 1 and 2. In technical terms the new hall will live up to the highest demands of both exhibitors and visitors and meet the high standards of the exhibition centre as a whole. It will be accessible via 7 gates, and it will allow suspensions from the ceiling and also the supply of facilities to stands from the hall floor. Visitors access the hall through the 16.5 m high, transparent foyer, whose 2,000 square metres can also be used for events. Located in front of the foyer will be an oversized, 7,800m² canopy roughly 20 m high made of translucent glass fibre fabric. It will be completed over the coming months serving as a landmark for the new entrance.

Six modern, glazed conference rooms measuring 200 square metres each for 198 persons will be available on the 1st floor of the hall. All rooms can be partitioned in the middle and are therefore even more flexible. Furthermore, the hall is connected to the CCD Süd Congress Center by a glass bridge on the 1^st floor. A lateral route leads directly from the Süd entrance to the rest of the exhibition centre connecting with Halls 3 and 4. What’s more, the hall can also be used for events outside exhibition periods: with row seating it holds up to 10,000 persons. With this move Messe Düsseldorf considerably increases the utilisation possibilities of the hall in response to current developments in the trade fair and event business.

Commenting on this President Dornscheidt says: “Our leading trade fairs are places for the international knowledge transfer of all players – from science and start-ups to global players. The accompanying conferences are therefore becoming increasingly important. The new Hall 1 and the new South entrance also open up completely new opportunities for Messe Düsseldorf and our subsidiary Düsseldorf Congress in terms of renting our exhibition centre to partners, for the city’s appeal as a congress and convention destination, and hence, the development of the international congress business.”

Jurek M. Slapa, founder and managing partner of slapa oberholz pszczulny | sop architects, adds: “Flexible usage and adjacent congress facilities – next to energy-efficient building technology – are among the most important requirements we received as a brief for designing the new hall. We are delighted to see that our architecture fully complies with all requirements and that we have created an ultra-modern exhibition environment for Messe Düsseldorf with this hall. It is always a special moment when an idea becomes reality. Together with Messe Düsseldorf we look forward to commissioning Hall 1 – and even more so to completing the whole Neue Messe Süd ensemble of buildings in 2020.”

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For a wide range of construction photos and renderings of Hall 1 for download go to: http://medianet.messe-duesseldorf.de/press/bau.

Copyright: Messe Düsseldorf, Ansgar M. van Treeck