CAUCASUS CONFERENCE CENTRE 2012 -

The appropriate sitting of the Caucasus Conference Centre within the vast plot was key in the development of the concept. It was deliberately chosen not to build a spread out accumulation of elements but to create a solitary, rectangular building enclosure perpendicular to the topographic fall and parallel to the river formations.

The CCC will not solely cater for conferences but also for a multitude of public programmes including concerts, theatre productions, screenings, private social events.

The proposed building attempts to reinvigorate the archetypal conference hall by redefining the relationship between the hallowed interior and the general public outside and around it. There is deliberately no large central foyer; instead, a continuous public route that connects the spaces around two auditoria by means of platforms and stairs. The building becomes thus an architectural adventure!

‘Inclusion’ through light and transparency describes the architectural idea of bringing at the CCC the outside in and taking the inside out. The CCC reveals its contents without being didactic; at the same time, it casts to its surroundings a new light!

On the outside, the crystalline structure captures and reflects the light - promoting the dialogue between building, immediate context and surrounding landscape. A primary concept has been to ‘dematerialise’ the building as a static entity and let it respond to the surrounding colours of the mountains, the water and the glow of the sky. The materials proposed change depending on the incidence of the light, the viewing angle, the time of the day or the season. On the roof, the translucent panels of the underside seen from the inside or the outside strengthen the impression of lightness.

In the inside, the transparency of the overall enclosure is in contrast to the two auditoria characterised by translucency. Both these primary spaces -the 1.200-seat grand auditorium and the 250-seat conference hall- have translucent glass façades and large openings that open the halls to the views and the landscape.