CAIRO EXPO CITY by Zaha hadid

Zaha Hadid Architects beat their Norwegian rival Snhetta in a race to design a 450,000m2 city for exhibitions and conferences on the outskirts of Cairo. The Nile valley inspired, sculpted conference complex will also include two office towers (31 and 33 storeys high) and a shopping center.

Along the great rivers of the region, most particularly the Nile, there is a powerful dynamic a constant flow between the water and the land which extends to incorporate the neighbouring buildings and landscapes. For the Cairo Expo City design, we worked to capture that seamlessness and fluidity in an urban architectural context, said Zaha.

Each cluster of individual buildings has been divided from the rest of the complex through carving and sculpting processes, yet they all relate to the overall fluid design.

Special attention has been payed to easing crowd traffic during events. The north-south artery is carved through the design, with secondary streams converging at the center.