Bavarians seek Bahrain as platform

NürnbergMesse is taking two specialist fairs to the Persian Gulf where it wants to expand still further.

Werner Lang is visibly satisfied as he enters the Shaikh Isa bin Ali building in Muharraq. He gently strokes the metre-thick walls of coral stone, clay and gypsum which ensure that the building stays cool in the daytime and warm at night. In a small tower that is open to the sky he stops, folds his arms over his chest and breathes in the fragrant air. The tower is designed to ensure that the interior of the building is always supplied with fresh air, Lang explains, irrespective of the wind direction. You can learn a lot from 19th century builders, the architect continues. As an international leading light in the field of intelligent energy-saving building, he should know.
In collaboration with NürnbergMesse, he has now launched an exhibition in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, on just this topic: Intelligent Building Middle East. It's only five minutes by car from Muharraq to the exhibition site. But the journey takes you past numerous building sites, because here in Bahrain, unlike Germany, the building market is booming. The Gulf state’s showcase project alone boasts fantastic proportions: the "Financial Harbour", a new financial centre costing 1.3 billion dollars, is currently being built to cover an area the size of 50 football pitches. The shell of the 53-floor "Dual Tower" already soars skyward like two over-sized conductor's batons. A large part of the site should be ready to receive first tenants by the end of this year.
But for all the elegance of the new emerald-green façade which contrasts against the dark blue water, it is based on an energy concept that dates back to the 1980s, as Lang explains: "done properly, you could reduce the energy requirement by a factor of four", the expert says, but can understand Bahrainis underdeveloped awareness of sustainability. After all, Germany experienced similar problems in the 1970s. "But since then we have invested in research and developed more innovative materials - and now, with Intelligent Building, we at last have a common market place for showcasing the entire spectrum."
And that is precisely what 117 exhibitors from 14 countries did on a floorplate of 2500 net square metres at the close of last year. Almost half the exhibitors came from Germany, 28 companies from Bavaria alone exhibited on the joint Bavarian stand. However, two of the international market leaders for façades, Schüco International from Bielefeld and Josef Gartner from Gundelfingen, were missing from the event. "It is very difficult to win over market leaders for first-time events", Herta Krausmann, general manager of Nürnberg Global Fairs explains but is quite confident that she can lure both companies to Intelligent Building at the end of this year. After all, building specialist Wicona from Ulm has already backed Intelligent Building.
Rumour has it that some of the sector giants do not show at these events because licence partners in the region are afraid of cannibalisation. The 2800 trade visitors will certainly have included observers for the market leaders.
The organisers must surely have hoped for a better turnout at the event. But the exhibition still needs time to develop and must contend with a potential competitor in the shape of the Big 5 in Dubai: according to the organisers this building fair annually attracts 2000 exhibitors to the United Arab Emirates. So architect Lang is quick to underline the quality of discussions at Intelligent Building: "It was more than the usual exchange of business cards. Many discussions lasted up to an hour."
The second of the exhibitions that the Nurembergers are staging in Bahrain will also have to convince by the quality of its meetings. Only around 2500 visitors made their way to the third water technology fair Water Middle East. At the first of these events three years ago the figure was still 2900. For the exhibitor figures, too, the trend is far from positive with numbers shrinking from 185 companies three years ago to 140 at the end of 2004, and to just 111 in November 2005. Even so, the organisers seem to have got their sums right. They are already reporting a break-even for both events.
And Bavarian involvement in Bahrain is nowhere near exhausted: the Nurembergers are set to launch four to six fairs on the Persian Gulf, "if we don't get them to work, we’ll just pull out again", says Krausmann. The Global Fairs boss sees the main potential in finances, education, and medical engineering. Another way forward is the acquisition of organisers in the region. Talks are reportedly underway with several organisers. As the sheikhs are concerned with their population's standard of education, this could be a good topic for a trade fair.
Markus Ridder

m+a report Nr.3 / 2006 vom 28.04.2006
m+a report vom 28. April 2006