The city of Toulouse in Southern France recently completed MEETT, its brand new Exhibition and Convention Center designed by OMA / Chris van Duijn.

Combining a convention center, exhibition halls, a multi-function event hall, a parking structure for 3,000 cars, and a transportation hub with a new tram station, bus stop, and cycling facility, the enormous complex measures 155,000 square meters (over 1.6 million square feet), making it the third largest of its kind in France, outside of Paris.

"The masterplan of MEETT has been conceived as an active strip — ‘une bande active’ — forming a physical border between urban development and countryside, with the ambition of becoming the central spine for an integrated development of the city and the countryside," explains OMA's project description. "The program of the exhibition and convention centre is organized into three parallel bands: an [...] exhibition hall to the north; a reception and circulation zone below a car park silo in the center; and a convention centre with a multi-function event hall to the south."

"The exhibition building at the northern strip is impressive in scale as it can be enjoyed as a single, nearly 700-m long space. The building is composed with a limited repertoire of functional elements — a series of black boxes (both on the ground and elevated in the air), white-colored steel profiles for the structure and a polycarbonate skin for the facade. Together they form a regular composition which emphasizes the giant scale of the building but also creates a bright and pleasant environment for the exhibition spaces."

"The Exhibition Hall provides a total of 40,000m2 of presentation area, which can function either as one major exhibition space or be separated into 7 modular halls, separated by a mechanized curtain. Two elevated mezzanines at either end of the hall provide space for reception or VIP program, while overlooking the main spaces. MEETT is a project about the relationship interior-exterior, and the Exhibition Hall is no exception, as the translucent façade provides the giant hall with generous daylight. The entire masterplan — including all buildings — is based on a 3-meter grid, following the standard expo distribution, which permits to dissect the building in 3x3 meter cells as if it was a Tetris board, providing endless possibilities to split the use of the ground but also forming an underlying system for all architectural components."

"At the center of the project, a 32,700 m2 reception area on the ground floor welcomes visitors into the exhibition halls, the exterior expo and the convention center. This is called the Rue Centrale, and functions, honoring its name, as a street — it is circulation area, information center, and public space all at once. Fully pedestrian, it can house from ticket offices to food stands. Elevated above the Rue Centrale and directly accessible from it is the carpark, a four-story elevated silo that sits right in the middle of the project. This building functions as a ceremonial entrance directly into the heart of MEETT, connected to the exhibition areas. It is an open building, to maximize the use of natural light and allow views into the expos from the parking lots."

"The southern strip of MEETT consists of a multi-function Event Hall and a Convention Center combined in a single building also directly accessible from the Rue Centrale. The entire building can also be transformed into additional exhibition spaces on two levels.
The Event Hall and Convention Center building is designed as a machine. A system of moveable vertical shutters and horizontal partitions allows it to transform in few minutes into a large number of configurations, from small meeting rooms in the upper floors of the Convention Center to an open plan layout bathing in natural light on the ground floor."

Find project drawings in the image gallery below.