Exhibition Plaza

With the world’s vast grasslands continuously facing major architectural interventions, design finds a way to merge the natural and the built environment. A prime example is the Exhibition Plaza, a 40,000-sqm development with a sinuous form that extends into a large, monolithic plaza.

Exhibition Plaza is a multi-functional structure set to be the face of the city of Otog located at the Mongolian grassland in northern China. Divided into four exhibition parts of history, culture, urban planning, and industry, its design represents the local geography and culture of Mongolia.

Inspired by Mongolia’s spirit totem, the façade facing the main city road resembles an eagle about to take flight. Whereas, the roof plaza is inspired by the local rock land and grassland, a nod to the original form of the site.

Both the façade and the roof function as an open park where guests can indulge in physical and recreational activities through its stepped topography. Depending on the angle and direction the form is viewed upon, the roof plaza presents ever-changing hues of the green and yellow landscape. An alternating arrangement of stone and grass extends the form into a natural promenade, transforming the site into one, continuous space.

Everything is merged here. Aside from extending the landscape of its open park throughout the exhibition center, four of its exhibition spaces are also spatially connected – fusing multiple parts of the building into a singularity. By blurring spatial boundaries throughout the development, this enables the constant activity between the exterior and the interior to continue.

Inside, natural light is fully-secured thanks to the belt of windows surrounding its every fifth stair. Sun-shading solar panels represented by the repetitive, curvilinear lines on the façade automatically rotate to close or open relative to solar movements. Its curved roof windows morph into a dome ceiling – the latter mirroring a magnificent view of the sky above it.

Serving as an architectural interpretation of the rich Mongolian history and culture, Exhibition Plaza with the constant changing of its topological roof becomes a reflection of how its spatial function integrates into the prominent grasslands of Inner Mongolia.