Project Name: Capital International Exhibition and Convention Center

Location: Beijing, China

Design Team: Zaha Hadid Architects

Total Floor Area: 611,000 m²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Virgile Simon Bertrand

Feature:

Project - Zaha Hadid Architects In Beijing's Shunyi District, adjacent to Capital International Airport, Zaha Hadid Architects has created the Capital International Exhibition and Convention Center (CIECC), Beijing's largest and most advanced exhibition and convention venue. This sprawling 611,000-square-meter complex responds to the growing demand for international conferences and industry expos in Beijing as a leading center of commerce, culture, and government, particularly with the significant expansion of the city's service and digital technology industries.

The design team conceived the project as fluid "ribbons" that weave together nine new exhibition halls, three reception halls, a conference center for 9,000 delegates, and a hotel with 410 rooms. The most striking design element is the composite roof system of symmetric geometries, creating an insulated, lightweight, large-span structure providing column-free spaces that can be quickly adapted to changes in exhibitions. This modular fabrication and construction minimized the center's development time, investment, and operational costs.

The center's central north-south axis serves as the primary connector between the nine exhibition halls, providing navigational clarity, maximum flexibility and efficiency, while creating a central courtyard and gathering place within sheltered outdoor event spaces and landscaped gardens. Bridges above this central courtyard connect the exhibition halls, conference center, and hotel, providing indoor circulation between event spaces. The center's exterior is defined by a pleated, deep copper-colored façade with recessed windows, thoughtfully designed to balance the immense industrial scale of the building with materiality.

CIECC achieved the highest certification of China's Green Building Program, using smart building management systems with hybrid ventilation, ensuring optimum natural ventilation supported by high-efficiency HVAC equipment to enhance indoor air quality and minimize energy consumption. Rainwater collection throughout CIECC's extensive footprint, grey water recycling, and photovoltaics for on-site energy generation reduce water and energy demand from the city's municipal supply.

Design Team - Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Architects is an internationally renowned architectural design firm founded by the late architectural master Zaha Hadid, now led by Patrik Schumacher. The firm is famous for its avant-garde, innovative design concepts and fluid, dynamic architectural forms, having completed numerous iconic architectural projects worldwide.

The firm's design approach combines cutting-edge technology with artistic creativity, focusing on creating sustainable, forward-looking architectural solutions. Their portfolio spans multiple building types, including cultural institutions, public buildings, commercial facilities, residential projects, and large-scale urban planning. Through the application of parametric design and computer-aided modeling techniques, the firm is able to achieve complex geometric forms and innovative spatial constructions.

Projects by Zaha Hadid Architects often challenge traditional architectural concepts, presenting unique visual language and spatial experiences. In the Capital International Exhibition and Convention Center project, the design team was led by Project Directors Satoshi Ohashi and Paulo Flores, working in collaboration with project associates Di Ding, Martin Pfleger, and Clara Martins, demonstrating the firm's professional design capabilities and innovative thinking for large-scale public facilities.

The firm's design philosophy emphasizes the harmonious integration of architecture with the environment and in-depth consideration of user experience, which is fully embodied in the CIECC project, making it not only an advanced functional exhibition venue but also an architectural masterpiece with artistic value and urban symbolic significance.