By Dixon Bwalya –

This year’s Zambia International Trade Fair exhibition received a lot of criticism highlighting mainly two concerns; the first one having to do with the quality of the organisation of the event and the second one had to do with the quality of the built environment within which the trade fair takes place.
Some quarters suggested that the trade fair event be suspended for two years to allow the rehabilitation and modernisation process to take place.
The concern dealing with the quality of organisation of the trade fair event will be left to others to analyse, while this article addresses the concern about the quality of the built environment as is existing at the moment which forms the platform where the trade fair exhibition takes place.
The type of built environment currently existing at the Zambia International Trade Fair comprises three types of form and space defining various degrees of closure from open spaces to partially open spaces and fully closed spaces; all of which are in various structural and aesthetical conditions.
All types of exhibitions spaces whether it be a museum or indeed trade fair usually capitalise on circulation path as one design tool to create a trail along which the artifacts are displayed at spaces laid out at specific intervals.
The circulation path can be laid out such that the integrity of each exhibition space is respected, while the configuration of the path is flexible.
Other design options would be to lay out the circulation path such that it passes through the exhibition space thereby creating a continuous pattern of rest and movement.
This design layout may be more appropriate where exhibition spaces are laid out as individual buildings spread over a large expanse of land as is the case at the Zambia International Trade Fair grounds with options of organising the exhibition spaces either as one continuous exhibition trail or a combination of a number of trails laid out in distinct clusters according to the artifacts on display.
Another utilisation of the circulation path design tool in creating an exhibition space is where the trail of the path terminates in the exhibition hall or building, especially where the space is horizontally limited as was the case with Buckminster Fuller’s 76.2m diameter geodesic dome built for the United States pavilion at the Montreal Expo in 1967 with an open plan internal space accommodating platforms holding various exhibits. Another such an architectural solution was Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum built in 1959 in New York where he used a helix where he formed a pedestrian ramp in which the gallery became a single continuous experience from ground floor upwards as opposed to the traditional closed gallery individual spaces.
The Guggenheim Museum has been described as “..a masterwork, a dream realised of united space and purpose, an assertion of continuous movement and quest…” Frank Lloyd Wright is assumed to have suggested in his architectural product that “..Architecture was a potent vehicle for conveying expression and a powerful psychological force…….In restoring to mid-twentieth century architecture something of its traditional mystical and psychological symbolism”
In these examples it is primarily important to note that where the platforms for exhibition have proved satisfactory the planners have realised and utilised the potentials of relying on architecture to set a quality platform for exhition irrespective of the quality of the artifacts to be exhibited.
In a number of trade fairs or indeed other exhibitions the artistic quality of architectural products that house or accommodate the items being exhibited may become a major contributor to the quality of the built environment of the trade fair grounds supplemented by the quality of the open spaces in between exhibition pavilions.
Now back to the Zambia International Trade Fair in Ndola on the Copperbelt. The genesis of the current problematic status of the structural layout seems to trace its roots to the initial planning of the trade fair grounds.
There does not seem to be any evidence of a deliberate design philosophy adopted in the design and layout of the trade fair right from the start the result has been an haphazard layout of pavilions as if buildings just dropped in place without relating to each other or utilising some harmonising factor to confirm that each pavilion did indeed belong to the trade fair context.
It also seems that may be because the actual trade fair takes place once in a year for about a week the planners may have adopted an approach of constructing buildings or pavilions as temporally shelters where owners were discouraged to invest too much money in constructing state-of-the-art pavilions.
Even the layout of circulation paths seems to have departed from the accepted practice for an urban and international trading event where it is recognised that participants would also come from beyond the borders of Zambia.
An examination, for instance, of the architectural messages coming from the form and space of the five main exhibition pavilions would indicate that not much design thought and construction effort was put into creating these structures.
The Levy Patrick Mwanawasa pavilion on Lunsemfwa Road with its ten or so series of connected but now sagging hipped roofs made from asbestos-cement roofing sheets has passed its useful life, the absence of any meaningful window openings makes the building uninviting with poor external and internal finishes.
The International Hall pavilion on Luapula Road which is an open hall partitioned into cubicles during the trade fair period is another “introvert” pavilion with its high level windows and solid steel gates and asbestos cement panels, it is only during the trade fair period that the internal layout has some semblance of modernisation when exhibitors decorate their particular stands with finishes that are much superior to “mwandaba” used as floor finish in some pavilions.
Rex Fertig Hall on Kafue Road and Kelvin Mulenga Hall on Luswishi Road are probably among the pavilions that are beyond refurbishment they need to be replaced with modern and attractive pavilions.
The two pavilions have high level brise soleil bricks for windows with badly plastered concrete block work walls with heavy steel sliding gates probably more suited to restricted security rooms.
Yes there are few flashes of some attempts to achieve acceptable artistic levels but these buildings are far in between; the Energy House pavilion for Energy Regulation Board, for instance, located directly opposite the Trade Fair offices is one such attempt with its façade finished in inviting and welcoming large expanse of clear glass and aluminium windows with matching wall panels but even with this building you soon get disappointed aesthetically when you examine the finishes on the side elevations and realise that it is after all a short lived visual excitement.
The built structures are always surrounded by open spaces whose maintenance would contribute or subtract to the overall appreciation of the built environment and so it is with the trade fair grounds open spaces.
The Ndola Trade Fair open spaces require just as equal attention as the buildings themselves by carefully landscaping colonised as well as un-colonised open spaces; this could be done by the Trade Fair management ensuring that owners of stands take this component into consideration as they maintain their particular stands.
Planting and maintaining soft landscaping complimented with a variety of hard landscaping of all open spaces would significantly reduce the amount of dust some show goers complained of.
Public toilet facilities or even ablution blocks require serious design consideration as these facilities provide an important service to both exhibitors as well as those visiting the trade fair, therefore, the design and maintenance of these facilities ought not be treated like an afterthought but should be part of the entire package being advertised and offered to those being invited to participate in the trade fair.
So yes the infrastructure of the Zambia International Trade Fair in Ndola need to be modernised by a major upgrading of what currently exists.
This exercise will have three components with the first one requiring going back to the drawing board to replan the overall layout of the trade fair in terms of stand locations and creating meaningful circulation paths which effortlessly lead you from one pavilion to the next.
The second part is to create and control the quality of structures constructed either as pavilions or providing support services such as food outlets to ensure that they reflect a modern image of this century’s International Trade Fair. Lastly landscaping of open spaces should receive serious consideration during the planning and implementation stages in order to create a holistically finished product.
This is an exercise that cannot be achieved by the trade fair board and management alone they can, may be, only spear head the project but government and other stake holders may have to come on board because the days of applying mwandaba as a floor finish in a pavilion at an international trade fair are long gone.
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