Jury of the international competition for the PEX in Toulouse
Prof. Emmanuel Rey of the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) was called upon as member of the jury of the international contest for the new Parc des expositions (PEX) in Toulouse, alongside with David Mangin, urban designer in Paris, Alfred Peter, landscape architect in Strasbourg and Franck Geiling, director of the Architectural and Urban Design of Euroméditerranée in Marseille.
With the aim of profiling the Greater Toulouse Area on the international scene, the new exhibition center will in due course represent a covered area of 100'000 m2, of which a Convention Hall of 15'000 m2. The approach also includes the urban design of landscaped areas and new infrastructures, particularly related to the extension of the tramway line. The Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) contributed to develop the specifications of the contest by writing chapters in relation with integrating criteria of sustainability into the urban and architectural project.
In the fall of 2010, the jury first selected three offices amongst the 51 applications received – including seven Pritzker Prize winners – namely the Atelier Portzamparc from Paris, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and the agency Valode & Pistre from Paris. After the competition phase, the project presented by OMA, the team of the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, was chosen for the next planning phase.