With the recent completion of its Neue Festhalle, the Bernexpo site now boasts a contemporary events venue that more than lives up to current standards in terms of functionality, flexibility and sustainability. It replaces its predecessor, built in 1948, which had provided a central location for trade shows, concerts and other events in the Swiss capital for decades. Covering some 10,000 square meters, the new hall offers a flexible space capable of hosting a wide range of events from public exhibitions via specialist trade fairs to music events. The flexible spatial concept implemented on the upper floor of the events venue offers additional space, greater versatility and the option of catering for up to eight smaller events in parallel.

The newbuild comprises two main spaces: a 47 x 42m events venue and an 82 x 58m multipurpose hall. They are at once separated structurally, physically and acoustically by a central foyer and linked in terms of circulation by the light and airy, canopied arcade. A basement connects all three interior spaces to the adjacent car park and so ensures optimum operational functionality.

The load-bearing structure is a hybrid steel and concrete construction. The upper floor of the events space has a light steel framework of panels and beams with a structural height of 0.95 meters, while two K-trusses and the roof plate provide horizontal bracing. Roof loads are transferred down to a grid of steel columns via the main beams and longitudinally to the reinforced concrete cores.

A pretensioned 20cm-thick ribbed slab made of 6cm-thick prefabricated reinforced concrete plates overlaid with 14 centimeters of cast concrete spans the larger hall on the ground floor. The 2.2m-high ribs bridge a distance of 31 meters between 40cm-thick reinforced concrete walls. Horizontal bracing is provided by four circulation cores located at the building corners and the in-situ cast concrete walls that enclose the space.

The multipurpose hall features twenty-one 4m-high trusses spaced 3.75 meters apart that run the length of the short load-bearing span. A 15cm-thick reinforced concrete slab works together with the top chords as well as playing a role in soundproofing.