New Rome-Eur Convention Centre
Text from the architect.
The structure will be built in a strategic area of the historic quarter EUR on a 55,000-square-meter built surface. The design concept is briefly explained by three images: the “Theca”, the “Cloud” and the “blade” of the Hotel. The “Theca”, longitudinally oriented, is the container, with steel structure and glass double-façade, that encloses the Cloud. The “Cloud” is the heart of the project. Its constriction into the “box” of the Theca underlines the comparison between a free spatial articulation, without rules, and a geometrically defined shape. Inside the Cloud there are: an auditorium for 1850 people, snack points and support services to the auditorium. The Cloud is, without any doubt, the distinctive architectural element of the project: the structure in steel ribs, with its extraordinary visual effect, will be covered by a 15,000-square-meter transparent curtain. The 439-room hotel, the “blade”, is thought as an independent and autonomous structure. At the underground level of the complex it’s planned a 600-place parking.
The New Congress Centre will be a work of extraordinary artistic value, characterized by innovative logistical solutions and by the choice of technologically advanced materials. The complex will be highly flexible, able to host congresses, exhibition events, with a capacity that will reach a total of nearly 9,000 seats, divided between the auditorium inside the Cloud, that could accommodate 1,850 people, and large conference rooms totalling 6,500 seats.
The design of the New Congress Centre is distinguished by its eco-friendly approach, that is a group of choices to reduce energy consumption.
There will be a climate control system with variable flow air conditioning, that will allow an optimal use of energy, with respect to the effective crowding of the rooms; on the cover of the Theca there will be photovoltaic elements that will allow a natural production of electricity and the protection of the building from the overheating, through the mitigation of the solar radiation, as well as allowing a significant energetic saving compared to those required to obtain the air-conditioning of the whole volume with traditional systems.
