It is 12 minutes by metro from the old site

In about two months, from 7 to 12 June, Bilbao Exhibition Centre will open its doors to the pageant star of Bilbao, the BIEMH, after having already held the fair of construction Construlan in April. The works, led to a frenetic pace, will be ready to welcome exhibitors and visitors in a space equipped with the latest technologies.

Since March 31 of the Bilbao international fair disappears to join BEC, a historic milestone for the Bilbao trade fair institution.

Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC), promoting society of the new fair exhibition centre located in the town of Barakaldo, about 8 kilometers from Bilbao (12 minutes by underground from the old fair), was formed on 6 March 2001. It has as partners the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia (41,52 per cent), Basque (41,52 percent), City Council of Barakaldo (13,95 per cent), Chamber of Commerce of Bilbao (0.35 percent) and international fair of Bilbao (2.67 per cent).

Its objective is to promote, build and manage the future fair. The idea of building this new site stems from the need for major Exhibitor spaces, which will allow to strengthen the international character and the quality of service that so far has characterized the Bilbao trade fair.

The total investment in the project is around 440 million euros.

BEC has a total area of 251.055 square meters, of which 246.457 are allocated to the trade fair activity and 4.598 remaining to a mall and a hotel, that will not be finished in this edition of the BIEMH.

Exhibition area is 155,000 square metres (more than the previous fair 79,000), distributed in six exhibition halls on the sides of a central street covered with 500 metres of length and a width of 40 meters. In addition, restaurants and shops will be installed on this street.

BEC is divided into six halls autonomous and prepared to meet visitors and most demanding exhibitor. Four of them are 15,000 square metres each, another with 21,000 square metres and a sixth, multi-purpose use, called the Pavilion Arena, 27,000 square metres. In addition to the flags of Union and a pavilion of 2,800 square meters with high quality finishing, has a Congress Centre of 18,000 square meters, 6,500 square meters dedicated to offices and 37,000 square metres of Atrium.

The Atrium building is in a pedestrian street of 20,000 square meters, services of 10,000 square meters and restaurants that will be 7,000 square meters.

BEC has opted for a unique design and is located in an urban junction in development, so that the building could not consist of brick rear facades. The solution adopted has been to "pick up" the entire building in a semi-transparent and metal skin that looks for a homogeneous and friendly image.

The new site gives facilities for the transport of products to expose. It is entirely surrounded by roads suitable for the transit of trucks of great tonnage through which access to all facilities. The vials are hidden to the view and run by the transit of people below. Each Pavilion has an own road that does not interfere with other traffic.

It also helps the transit and installation of machinery the absence of columns of the pavilions.

In addition, to make the environment more pleasant, it has sought the acoustic and sheet perforated with audio unit veil to avoid reverberation and get sufficient for musical events sound quality has been used.

Other interesting services: air conditioning, internet access from any booth, 4,000 parking spaces and easy access by metro to the door of the fair.