1.

Convention Centre : Introduction

Urban Scale:
The convention center is usually seen as a sign of an emerging or a mature city. As well, it is seen as
providing economic benefits, as being a catalyst for the revitalization of declining downtowns, and as
being one of the amenities that government is responsible for providing.
A convention is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups
gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to
accommodate several thousand attendees.
The first truly modern center - in terms of exhibition space, accessibility and storage - was Detroit's
Cobo Hall, which opened in the late '60s. "It marked a turning point. It was the forerunner of the
convention centers across the country today," he says. Cobo Hall was the first convention center built to
accommodate groups of vastly different sizes. Its exhibit space could be divided into halves, or thirds. It
also was unusual in that it had a large corridor for registration and receptions.

2. Methodology : Principles of Urban Design

Typological Urbanism: The character of the city can be influenced through its formative building
components – institutions, housing and monuments as opposed to blocks, districts or other scales that
might define an urban design project. It relies on a precisely developed understanding of the definition
of the architectural type. The building type performs as a unit of embedded urban culture, architecture
legibility, a reservoir of collective memory or a scale of design through which the systems of the
surrounding city might be condensed and redirected. “Type can most simply be defined as the concept
which describes a group of objects characterized by the same formal structure” (Moneo,”On
Typology,”Oppositions 13 (1978).

In other words, we might understand architectural type as a formal structure that is present in a group of
dissimilar objects. Under this principle, architects act as major players in the design of cities through
controlling architectural objects. In this way individual objects may begin to dictate certain rationals or
formalism within the city. “Type as a formal structure is also intimately connected with reality- with a
vast hierarchy of concerns running from social activity to building contruction” (Moneo 1978). The
argument says that the architectural object can become a vessel for ideologies, political biases, economic
ideals and other formal concepts. Through implementing these ideals into an urban form, Typological
urbanism can begin to reshape not just the physical composition of urban space but its ideological
organisations as well. A city can be reclaimed from the sprawling characteristics of modernist
urbanization by using specific components, whether they be buildings, infrastructure or public spaces.

Case of Penang Tropical City, Malaysia: The city originates from a typological distribution of programs by
precisely allocating architectural and urban types. A distinction is made between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’
programs. Soft program represents the institutional and other public investments while hard program is
private and attractive for profits.

3. Attributes attached to a convention centre:

 The meeting industry has over the past twenty years developed into a multibillion dollar business that
attracts millions of users. This complex industry is highly segmented by different user groups with
different needs. However, three general categories appear: (1) conventions and trade shows, (2)
consumer shows, and (3) local events. Each group has different requirements for facilities, population
size, hotel room supply, travel access, management skills, and city amenities. The demand for a particular
convention center is generally a function of how the group's requirements can be met by the city, and
what competing cities can offer.
For a city to be considered a candidate for a large convention or tradeshow it must have a sufficient
hotel room supply. Meeting planners place most importance on the number of hotel rooms in the
immediate vicinity of the convention center. Having a large supply within walking distance is a bonus as
attendees do not have to worry about shuttle service, public transportation, or the unspoken concern of
drinking and driving. Access to a convention center is essential to attendees. Access does not only refer
to air travel but to parking facilities, highway networks, public transportation, and facility access.
Proximity to the airport and the number of scheduled flights are key factors for national and regional
conventions and trade shows. The closer a convention center is to the airport the higher the rating given
by meeting planners.

Example: Boston's Logan airport is within five miles of the Hynes Convention Center, an important plus
for attracting convention business to Boston. Those cities seeking out-of-town attendees must also have
convenient air travel connections from throughout the country.

4. An Urban Convention Hotel : Scope of Flexibility

In contemporary design practice, researchers increasingly emphasize “smart architecture”, that is,
architecture with an organic presence that is capable of growing according to the changing needs of the
users.
The time factor and the fact that life is enacted in dynamic processes needs incorporating into the
architectural design. A process-based architecture of this order brings about a process rather than a
finished article, a set of possibilities that puts the product aspect in the hands of its users. It does not
need to be an immaterial, virtual architecture. On the contrary, the presence of a physical, spatial
structure always will be a necessary condition for potential use. It is the form that is no longer stable, that
is ready to accept change. Its temporary state is determined by the circumstances of the moment on the
basis of an activated process and in-built intelligence and potential for change. (Hinte, 2003, 130–133)

Strategies in Flexibility:

 Polyvalence: The strategic placement of services such as toilets and kitchen create 'service cores',
which allow the adjacent 'raw' spaces to be used for a number of different functions while
maintaining the full functionality and serviceability.

 Movable Building Components: Additional flexibility is added when movable wall partitions are
used. The opening and closing of wall partitions is able to change the number, size and quality
of spaces, as well as affecting the spatial organisation to create more complex levels of privacy
and intimacy.
5. Need of the Project :

The hospitality industry in Delhi NCR has seen tremendous growth in the past decade especially due
to the recent developments in the regional suburbs like Gurgaon and Noida. Both of these are
emerging satellite towns are a hub for IT and business sectors. As land is a prerequisite for any kind
of development, Noida and Gurgaon are the logical answers to the burgeoning need for development
in Delhi NCR. Noida is the second most favourable location contributing about 29% tooverall office
take-ups in Q4 of financial year 2012. Most of the transactions took place on the Noida- Greater Noida
Expressway (TNN, 2013).
According to Walker (as cited in He and Findley, 2009), people travel for different reasons but the
two main reasons are for pleasure and for business. Business travel can be defined as ‘trips and visits
made by employees and others in the course of their work, including visiting a client, attending
meetings, conferences and exhibitions (He and Findley, 2009).

Greater Noida Masterplan 2021 Objectives:

 To promote planned development integrated with industrial development for achieving the
NCR plan objective of dispersal of population and economic activities outside Delhi.
 To provide for low density development with regional level institutional and recreational
activities aiming to serve the entire region.
 To facilitate the emergence of these industrial centres with ample employment and work
opportunities at a place suited for such activities and provide the workers a conducive
environment for work and enjoyment of good quality of life.

In the present plan, the city lacks a major commercial centre of the likes of City Centre, and
provision for wholesale trade facilities.

Creating a financial and commercial magnet and by making a global exhibition centre just like that of
in pragati maidan.

Understanding Cities: In structure of Pars and Maad cities of Iran, market is the only place where people
have found their social presence and to this day the market and sales are the most important centers for
people in their social interactions.
Popular convention center or the center of public gatherings is a public place yet has recognized the
public areas for processes and formal and informal relationships and interaction through dialogue
between people and the government. These centers are considered to meet the cultural-social needs of
the community and provide some suitable location and character befitting for meetings and conferences
and seminars, and other collective and grass roots activities and a place for the establishment of public
institutions and government agencies and non-governmental organizations and representatives of people.
The aim of these centers beside the institutionalizationing of civil society, create the right conditions for
communication between city authorities and the people so that can attract public participation in the
affairs of the city and people find a sense of belonging to the city by contributing to the city's affairs.
Then to clarify the definition of urban gathering places, we express the functions and features of these
centers (Ibn-Sina, 1988).