Frankfurter Buchmesse commissions schneider+schumacher to design new stage

Architectonic jewel – the Frankfurt Pavilion on the Agora

Frankfurt, 2 May 2018 – A self-supporting wooden structure, 6.5 metres tall, with a translucent membrane on 500 square metres – presenting the Frankfurt Pavilion, the new emblem of the Frankfurter Buchmesse (10-14 October 2018). Designed and built by the renowned architecture firm schneider+schumacher, this iconic structure will make its debut at the 70th Book Fair and will host events with authors and industry experts from around the world.

“Authors and their work are at the heart of the largest trade fair for books and media. The Frankfurt Pavilion is intended as a place for holding debates, sharing knowledge, making contacts and forging trends that pave the way for the future of the global publishing industry. We already look forward to the opening of this new stage”, says Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Programme developed in cooperation with exhibitors

The programme for the Pavilion is being developed in cooperation with exhibitors. The first partners already on board are: European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), “Georgia made by Characters”, Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESA), Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA), Global Illustration Award (GIA), BRIGITTE, Buchblog-Award (Book Blog Award), Deutscher Buchpreis (DBP; German Book Prize), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Children’s Literature Award), Deutscher Wirtschaftsbuchpreis (German Business and Economics Book Award)/Handelsblatt, Litprom – world literature, Favourite Book of the “Woche unabhängiger Buchhandlungen” (WuB; Independent Booksellers Week), re:publica and the U.S. General Consulate Frankfurt.

We are also pleased to announce the first authors to commit to the programme: Paul Beatty, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Cixin Liu, Meg Wolitzer, Deniz Yücel and Juli Zeh, amongst others, are expected to attend.

The opening press conference of the Frankfurter Buchmesse on Tuesday, 9 October, will also be held in the Frankfurt Pavilion this year. On the following three days of the fair, trade visitors will have the opportunity to attend book presentations, press conferences, awards ceremonies, as well as panel discussions and innovative conference formats, here. At the weekend, when the fair is open to all visitors, a varied cultural programme – including bestseller readings, discussions with authors, as well as musical performances and culinary experiences – awaits visitors.

“Stories need good spaces. The Frankfurt Pavilion is meant to offer our partners and their exceptional content an appropriate framework. Together, we want to create a really special atmosphere for dialogue and networking between our fair visitors – a central stage for publishing professionals and lovers of literature from around the world. With the Pavilion, we are laying the foundations for greater visibility of content and authors in Frankfurt – on a human scale and with room for encounters”, adds Lars Birken-Bertsch, Director Business Development at the Frankfurter Buchmesse and head of the project.

According to Kai Otto, Till Schneider and Ragunath Vasudevan of schneider+schumacher, “Books always only reveal their inner nature upon closer inspection. And then, ideally, they cast a spell directly on you… This is precisely the image we had in mind when we designed the Pavilion. A cocoon that opens up inside into an atmospheric space for multimedia presentations. The result is a significant and inviting space for coming together around books at the heart of the fair”.

“The structure can also be interpreted as the parametric transformation of a bookshelf into a space-forming construction”, according to Klaus Bollinger of Bollinger + Grohmann, responsible for the strucural design.

In designing the Frankfurt Pavilion, the architects faced the challenge of creating a temporary yet solid structure that can be put into storage and rebuilt easily. To ensure that the structure can continue to be used amidst fair activities in the years to come, the other structural, scenic and industrial elements on the Agora were also taken into consideration when deciding exactly where the Frankfurt Pavilion should be positioned.

The heart of BOOKFEST

The Frankfurt Pavilion gives BOOKFEST, the festival of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, launched in 2017, a vibrant new core. In addition, events and productions will also take place in selected locations throughout Frankfurt, beyond the limits of the exhibition grounds and after the end of the fair.

Contact for information about the Frankfurt Pavilion project and programme:
Lars Birken-Bertsch, Frankfurter Buchmesse
birken-bertsch@book-fair.com(opens in a new window), tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102 – 155

Contact for information about the Frankfurt Pavilion design:
Jessica Witan, Schneider+schumacher
jessica.witan@schneider-schumacher.de(opens in a new window) , tel: +49 (0) 69 25 62 62 – 821

About schneider+schumacher
Till Schneider and Michael Schumacher founded schneider+schumacher in Frankfurt am Main in 1988. Their legendary information box, erected shortly after reunification on what was then the largest construction site in Berlin, brought the office worldwide recognition. Since then, more than 100 buildings, urban development projects and numerous product designs have emerged. The office’s spectrum ranges from housing to industrial buildings, a highway church to high-rises, and from museum work to a particle accelerator. Award-winning architectural and urban development schemes include the Frankfurt Westhafen, an extension to the historic Städel Museum as well as the Autobahn Church Siegerland. Most recent accolades include the extension of the Mannheim Business School, the gold-coloured DOXX in Mainz, designed with bb22, the DGNB Platinum certified Parks Department Office in Frankfurt and a redesign of the external landscaping for the office complex “die welle”. www.schneider-schumacher.de(opens in a new window)

About the Frankfurter Buchmesse
The Frankfurter Buchmesse is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair – with over 7,300 exhibitors from 102 countries, around 286,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and some 10,000 accredited journalists and bloggers in attendance. It also brings together key players from other media, including the film and games industries. Since 1976, the Book Fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. The Frankfurter Buchmesse organises the participation of German publishers at around 20 international book fairs and hosts trade events throughout the year in major international markets. With its Business Club, the Frankfurter Buchmesse offers essential services and an ideal setting for the activities of entrepreneurs, publishers, founders, pioneers, experts and visionaries. THE ARTS+ was launched in 2016 as a fair, business festival and international meeting place for the culture and creative industries. It aims to exploit the potential of digitalisation for creative content and to develop new business areas. The Frankfurter Buchmesse is a subsidiary of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association). www.book-fair.com(opens in a new window)

Contact for the media:
Press & Corporate Communications Frankfurter Buchmesse
Katja Böhne, Vice President Marketing & Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-138, press@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
Kathrin Grün, Head of PR and Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-170, gruen@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
Jördis Hille, PR Manager, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-271, hille@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)

> Press information online >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-releases
> Photos in print quality >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-material