In the past twenty years, nearly all of Europe’s major ex­hibition centres have been expanded, rebuilt, or constructed in new locations to replace antiquated and inadequate facilities. Significant amounts have been invested in developments that have often brought radical change to entire city districts.

The volume collects a selection of the most interesting European ex­hibition complexes, distinguishing the new centres (an example being, the fairs in Milan, Rome and Stuttgart), from those which have been renovated or expanded (such as Vienna, Berlin, Padua and Turin). Each project is described through an illustrative text, completed by images and technical drawings. In the last pages, a practical manual summarises all the information and the requirements for the correct design of a trade fair.

Clemens F. Kusch was born in Rome in 1963.
He studied architecture at the University of Venice, where he gained his doctorate in 1993 and has subsequently been a visiting professor. Since his studies, Kusch has been closely involved in relations between German and Italian architects, for example as a contact architect for German firms such as gmp von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (Hamburg), for the curators of the Venice Biennale and as a correspondent for German newspapers. Since 2009, he has coordinated the joint German-Italian project for the reconstruction of the Berliner Schloss.

Volkwin Marg was born in Königsberg, East Prussia in 1936, and grew up in Danzig. He studied architecture at the Technische Universität Braunschweig until 1964. In the following year he became a freelance architect and, together with Meinhard von Gerkan, has designed more than 280 completed buildings and won over 440 prizes in national and international compe­titions. Marg has won numerous awards for architectural excellence, and has published and given presentations in Germany and abroad on issues relating to architecture, urban planning, and cultural policy. He was president of the Bund Deutscher Architekten from 1979 to 1983. In 1986, Marg was awarded a chair in urban planning and practical instruction at the architecture faculty of RWTH Aachen University. He founded the gmp-Stiftung zur Förderung der Architekten­ausbildung in 2007, and was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2009.