Ahead of July’s AIPC Annual Conference, AIPC CEO Sven Bossu (pictured below) found inspiration in some surprising places for buildings to connect with communities.
Venue design has been subject to massive changes over the last decades. Event facilities are no longer the big blocks of concrete, appearing in cities like white elephants and with no connection with the local communities.
Architects now need to take into account need for flexibility, sustainability, visitor wellness, aesthetics and so much more. Inspiration to make this a reality can sometimes come from surprising places.
Visiting Paris is always a pleasure. It is one of my favourite cities for many reasons, including architecture. And, with the 2024 Olympic Games approaching, it seems that both private owners and local authorities are doing their utmost to make the city of lights shine even more, with roadworks and restoration ongoing throughout the city. But this particular visit had a different purpose than admiring the city views – I was invited to visit a venue of which the restoration is inspired by the work of a comic book artist, François Schuiten. Schuiten, a Belgian citizen, but semi-adopted by the French and is most known for drawing the series Les Cités Obscures, or Obscure Cities.
The CNIT Forest, as the venue is called, will open in September and is located within the business district of Paris, La Défense. It is part of an eclectic set of 12 venues, managed by VIParis. What makes this restoration special is the underlying mindset. The designers – including Schuiten – wanted to “keep in mind the spirit of audacity, of inventiveness, of creativity, and also the desire for nature and the ambition to connect to the most advanced technologies”.
The result indeed is the feeling of a entering an underground forest, composed of digital trees, complemented with natural light. The materials used aim to create a sense of calm and the overall flow is very intuitive. The contrast with the “buzz” in the business district outside could not be bigger – it simply feels like you’re entering a special place.
It is something which is becoming an overall trend when it comes to venue design: the ability to offer visitors a unique experience through (event) design and technology, while at the same time offering maximum flexibility and cost-efficiency. Great examples are the new BMO Centre in Calgary, ICC Sydney or the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne. All of these venues took the customer experience as starting point when developing their plans and indeed offer something unique, impossible to be found in another venue.
Given the struggle that associations have to attract their members to their events – both as criterium for member engagement and as ways to generate non-dues revenues – being able to offer such unique experiences will become more important. It also means that organisers are thinking more and more “out of the box” when it comes to selecting a destination and/or an event venue and the offer is definitely there. Just looking at the city where our offices are located – Brussels – you can rent anything from a heritage building to a former Airbus A320 recycled as an event hall.
This is another reason why the renovation of the CNIT Forest is so interesting, as it demonstrates the trends of existing venues reinventing themselves into experience centres. It is also one of the topics we will touch upon during the AIPC Annual Conference, taking place in Luxembourg at the European Conference Center Luxembourg, 16-19 July, with three architects/designers sharing their views on the future of event venues and their integration in the local communities.
