GOLD: The New Galaxy, De Boer Structures
SILVER: Earls Court & Olympia
FINALIST: International Convention Centre, Birmingham
GOLD: The New Galaxy Last year, De Boer Structures was asked to supply temporary structures for the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards in Edinburgh.
Organiser: MTV Networks Europe wanted a temporary "village", to include a giant auditorium to house the main awards, as well as reception areas, dressing rooms, TV studios and VIP rooms.
The 16,500sq m of temporary structures took four weeks to erect. This was the first time that the New Galaxy structure had been constructed on a specially created scaffold base to ensure the arena floor was kept horizontal on the sloping harbourside. This was critical for the lighting, needed to ensure quality worldwide TV coverage.
De Boer's New Galaxy structure measures 107mx60m and can accommodate up to 10,000 people. The roof sails alone measure 500sq m, reaching a height of 26m.
In 2003, De Boer was also asked to provide a 4,500 capacity temporary venue as the main pavilion at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. De Boer once again provided a number of smaller venues, as well as erecting the New Galaxy structure as the pavilion.
The same structure was reproduced at the Lipizzaner Gala equestrian event in Piber, Austria.
SILVER: Earls Court & Olympia
Earls Court hosted a total of 32 shows in 2003. For the MPH'03 show, the brief was to transform Earls Court Two into a live motoring theatre for 3,000 spectators. More than 20,000 car enthusiasts attended the event.
In Earls Court One, Justin Timberlake played for eight nights during December. A temporary seating structure was installed to accommodate the 18,000-strong audience. The music industry's Brit Awards returned to Earls Court for the fourth time this year. A bespoke event themed "Heaven and Hell" was created for the star-studded audience.