Description
Hall 13 was the first joint venture of Deutsche Messe AG, Hanover and Expo 2000 GmbH. It is situated in the west of the Expo site and is directly linked to the Expo terminal Laatzen. The fully glazed cubic building is 226 m long, 121 m wide and 18.60 m tall. Six reinforced concrete cores with three storeys plus basement – situated at the four corners and in the centre of the hall – contain service rooms, exhibition offices, and two restaurants as well as mechanical rooms. A gallery at the west façade offers additional office space for the event management. Service ducts on a 10 m grid in the raised floor ensure provision of power, water, telecommunication, and data services for all exhibition stands. The main visitor access to the hall is through a glazed lobby to the west of the building. Via lift gates to the north and south, exhibitions and events can be serviced with low-loaders. To the east, a glazed building provides a weather protected link to Hall 12.
A girder grillage of crossing steel trusses freely spanning an area of 27,000 m² forms the roof. The large area structure has a modular height of 4.50 m and is supported by the six stiffening service cores. The square grid of 7.50 m x 7.50 m is a result of the structural and economical optimization of the steel tubes used. The individual structural members are rigidly joined by cast steel elements. The nodes were designed as a modular building system that optionally allows for varying connections of diagonal members and columns. The free-spanning roof structure allows for the interior space to be flexibly subdivided and adjusted to different modes of use – an essential requirement for frequently changing exhibitions.
The roof covering consists of prefabricated timber box elements and skylights bridging the grid of girders. The 17.50 m high façade is a self-supporting post-and-beam structure; within the bounds of the concrete cores it is made of opaque glass panels. Roller blinds on the inside of the façade are used for blacking out. On the southern side of the hall the glazed skin is subdivided by facing fixed solar blinds preventing excessive interior solar gain.
Drawings
Ground floor
Floor plan diagram
Longitudinal section
Axonometric view of the roof structure
Axonometric view of modular node detail showing cast element
Section of roof structure showing the steel girder grillage on one of the reinforced concrete cores
Photos
Exterior view
Girder grillage freely spanning the interior space
Originally published in: Jürgen Adam, Katharina Hausmann, Frank Jüttner, Industrial Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.