In the north of Toulouse OMA has completed MEETT, an exhibition and congress center. The result of a competition won by the Dutch studio in 2011, its 155,000 m2 on a 90 ha site, makes it the third largest France facility.  

The strategy adopted by the studio was to make the complex an “active band,” horizontal and compact, made up of three different functional nuclei. To the north are the exhibition halls, with a modular structure, which forms a linear body almost 700 m long. To the south are the conference center and multifunctional hall for events. The access area is the pivotal point, with parking for 3,000 cars. The studio conceived the complex as an “urban machine” to connect inside and outside, contrary to the generally introverted conception of these structures.

In the last stretch of the northern outskirts of Toulouse, the location of the building, in an almost rural area susceptible to urban sprawl, triggered these design choices by the studio. OMA states that “our project uses MEETT’s impressive and diversified program as an antidote to the expansion of a standard exhibition park to preserve the surrounding Occitan countryside.”