MEETT is located on the northwestern outskirts of Toulouse, behind the airport: at the same time, the city center is relatively close, from there a tram line leads to the exhibition complex (its last 700 m with a terminal station were implemented within the framework of the expocentre project) and a motorway (4.2 km were completed, from 2.5 km of them are four-lane). But this is already the border of urban development - in this case, semi-industrial, where, in addition to the airfield, there are Airbus facilities and other aviation facilities, and fields. Back in the competition project that brought the OMA victory in 2011, Rem Koolhaas and his team talked about the danger of a spontaneous "sprawling" of the city, and the same "sprawling" exhibition complex.
As an alternative, they proposed a compact, elongated ensemble embedded in a larger strip for thoughtful development. This larger plan never came to fruition, while MEETT was successfully implemented and hosted the first exhibitions this month. It is located perpendicular to the roads leading from Toulouse, therefore, even visually, it can play the role of a certain border for the city - as its authors intended.
The complex is an “active strip” divided into three parallel “ribbons”. The north, outer, as viewed from the center of Toulouse, is occupied by a 700-meter exhibition pavilion, which can be divided into seven smaller ones using mechanical curtains. It is 40,000 m2, which is designed with a module of 3x3 meters, according to the size of the exhibition stand. The facades are made of polycarbonate panels and therefore allow light to pass through: natural lighting makes the usually uncomfortable and cut off exhibition pavilion much more pleasant. At its ends there are mezzanine floors that play the role of lobbies or VIP areas.
On the other hand, there is a hall for congresses and other events: it can also be used for exhibitions, but first of all it can be divided or combined depending on the program of the next conference (a large hall for 3500 people and small halls for a total of 2700). One of its 13 m high facades can be moved to use the adjacent area for the needs of a particular exit. As a result, the southern "tape" has 65,000 m2 of indoor and 40,000 m2 of open space. The facades of the hall are made of glass and polycarbonate, their versatility is provided by horizontal and vertical dividers, which can be pulled out and removed at will.
But the most interesting thing is conceived in the middle: this "tape" (32,700 m2) is called Central Street: a semi-open space that can be used as you like, for placing ticket offices, food stalls, etc. This is the main communication axis and the lobby of the complex. It is protected from the sun by a four-storey garage for 3,000 cars (75,000 m2) with permeable green facades: it stretches over the entire “street” and has become the most visible part of the complex. This decision made it possible to avoid huge parking lots at the edge of the site, which blur its boundaries and turn expo centers from organized to semi-spontaneous development.
A separate component is a transport hub with a tram and its final stop, taxis, buses and an equipped parking lot for bicycles. It is designed for intensive development of the surrounding area and can be expanded depending on new needs.
