RMJM has been awarded the commission to design the Beijing Olympic Green Convention Centre, a key venue in the 2008 Olympic games. RMJM successfully beat off strong competition from Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands, Australian practice Philip Cox Architects and KMD from the USA, in an invited international design competition organised by client Beijing North Star.

RMJM's commission will not only involve the design of the 270,000m2 Convention Centre but also the master planning of the 12.2-hectare site for commercial, retail and hotel accommodation. The Convention Centre itself will be located at the heart of the Olympic Boulevard close to the neighbouring "Water Cube" swimming complex, the National Gymnasium and National Stadium. It is being constructed to stage indoor Olympic events such as fencing and pistol shooting and will also be used as the principal press centre for the games, providing facilities for the world's media including broadcast studios.

The master plan and architectural scheme developed at RMJM's 120-strong Hong Kong office was finally given the go-ahead following a meticulous and lengthy selection process. The competition started in July 2003 when Beijing North Star invited four architectural practices to bid for the project.

RMJM Associate Director, Gordon Affleck believes it was the firm's successful completion of the Dubai International Convention Centre (DICC) that determined their invitation to the competition. The facility opened on budget and on time for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in September 2003. "The DICC was a very challenging project in terms of site and time constraints. It also involved working for multiple public and private clients where we provided the architectural skills, design management and engineering of the scheme," he said.

The Beijing Olympic Green Convention Centre is located midway down the main boulevard of the strictly axial Olympic grounds. The master plan concept for the grounds, by US-based Sasaki Associates and Tianjin Huahui Architecture and Design Company, relates to a historic timeline of Chinese history along the site - from 3000BC to modern day. The Beijing Olympic Green Convention Centre coincides with the Qin Dynasty, which despite tyrannical turmoil, was a period of unification when a common Chinese language was first established and the 7 Kingdoms were united.

The RMJM team that worked on the design for the Beijing Convention Centre at the practice's Asian head office had clear concepts from the outset. Affleck, one of the team's principal designers explained: "It was important to focus on how the building could contribute back to the urban environment of the Olympic Boulevard and how it embraces the green theme of the Olympics."

The convex form of the rectilinear building's front elevation creates a gently rising underbelly that arches over the road beneath. Affleck describes it as, "a singularly expressive language that ties all internal objects together." With the numerous commercial facilities situated in the complex, the roofscape forms a unifying link to these contrasting elements.

The front elevation, the building's main circulation zone, engages with the Olympic Boulevard. "We have created a public street within the elevation, so that people will enliven its edge and stimulate activity on the boulevard below," explains Affleck. He also explains that although exhibitions and conferences operate continuously, the process of erecting and dismantling them leaves them unpopulated for much of the time. "Exhibition halls are huge, empty volumes that are dead spaces when not in use," states Affleck. "We wanted to minimize the impact of the halls and maximize the more active accommodation. So, by filtering the 'live' functions out to the front of the complex, the façade becomes more animated."