A female building in Singapore

The last few weeks I was wrapped up in the interiors of convention centres from all over the world, while I have to admit that it was their exteriors which fascinated me the most. Just like the way you look at people, right? The architecture of new convention centres, that’s what it was all about, and more specifically the female side of architecture. I have found a lady architect - and there’s only one - who created a convention centre in Cape Town in 2003. Anya Van Der Merwe Miszewski (picture above) was leading designer of the CTICC. You can read the interview with her in HQ Magazine No.27! The talk we had made me think about female elements in convention centres. Or is there something like female architecture? A little research has taught me that The Singapore Esplanade (see picture) has some female forms. And now that the AIPC Annual Conference is held in Singapore, it may be nice to take a closer look to that building. Jackie Craven wrote in ‘Architecture and Sex’ , with obvious references to The Singapore Esplanade: ‘Some architecture critics believe that ‘female’ architecture is architecture that seems to express femininity. There is something womanly about the building's shape, size, proportions, color, or texture. Curved shapes may suggest the womb. Perhaps you long to crawl inside the building and curl into a fetal position. The dumpling-shaped Esplanade in Singapore has a round shape that might be called feminine.’
I must add that the Esplanade is built by men! Can someone see whether a building is designed by a woman? Conference delegates, keep an eye out for that building! Could it give you some inspiration for a congress centre of the future? I could see us all lying there in fetal position during a congress, nicely in the middle of the building!

Looking for Congress Pearls

Last year after my visit to ADNEC in Abu Dhabi I wrote something bad about the European Convention Centres. I was specifically talking about the buildings and the architecture and not about management. The article said: About Palaces, bunkers and hangars. ‘If I look at what people generally build in Europe, I must say I start to blush. Most exhibition centres - and a lot of convention centres as well - in Europe and elsewhere look like bunkers, I feel.’ But oh lord, that didn’t go down well with some people. ‘What do you dare to write, Marcel?’
I know, there are a lot of exceptions but I have to repeat that in a few continents more attention is paid to the architecture of the buildings than in Europe. Or let me put it this way: countries that recognize the (big) value of a nice convention centre, also invest a lot of time in the shape and the content of it all. New convention centres have become market places of people’s minds instead of man-made goods. Real intellectual meeting spots, I call them. Or am I mistaken again in this matter?
The last example I’ve found could even be called an experimental building. Really unbelievable. In Ras al Khaimah plans are made for a dramatically iconic congress centre that could even have its place in space. The mixed-use project designed by Rem Koolhaas (OMA) features convention and exhibition facilities, hotels, offices, dwellings, shops and restaurants. The proposed form is dramatically iconic. An interior that takes the form of a sphere can be considered as a minimalist approach. The sphere as an exterior form however, is absolutely iconographic. No doubt about that. It already starts with the fact that OMA themselves named one of the images ‘Deathstar’, after the space city in the film series Star Wars.
I would recommend to read the next HeadQuarters Magazine that will be introduced in June during the annual AIPC congress in Singapore. In there, me and Rémi Dévé have done some investigative journalism for the first time in the meetings industry. You will find some juicy details on Convention Centre architecture, interior design, green management, services and catering. And this time, I hope you won’t be mad at me.

Tea Chat with Lady Jean

This year I was really pulled out of my hibernation by the voices of two charming ladies, whom I was very honored to meet in the beginning of 2008, however unbelievable this may sound to some people. Actually there where 3 ladies but I’ll come back on that later on. The first one was Preeti from Hyderabad in the South of India, but I already informed you about her.

And last week I was having tea with Jean Evans, Chief Executive of the Dublin Convention Bureau. For the occasion and because of the setting, I gave her the title of “Lady Jean”. Imagine the golden yellow armchairs, red and yellow tulips, Irish tea served in pure white Irish porcelain and the company of a lady who’s loved in the whole of Dublin because of her efforts to give the city an inviting destination appeal. And then I did not even mention the location: The Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin. What more could you want? And did you really think we were chatting about the fact that last year Lonely Planet proclaimed the Irish as the most friendly people of the entire world. No, we were talking about the construction of the new Convention Centre in Dublin, designed by the 80-year old Irish born architect Kevin Roche. The following quote describes him adequately: “The worst thing you could ever do is to retire”. I will act upon his advice in the literal sense. The opening of the Convention Centre Dublin is expected in 2010. I still hear Jean saying: “We are already waiting twenty years for this big moment. Everyone who even has the slightest connection with the meeting industry in Dublin is wildly enthusiastic about it.”
I can still hear myself thinking: “If only there were more cities that had such residents. Feeling happy because a new style of commodity exchange is built, this time not to trade goods but human intellect. A Brain Exchange Building!”