Bahrain’s first airshow was furnished in record time with chalets fit for royalty. LIZ O’REILLY reports on a unique design effort

As the crowds flocked to the inaugural Bahrain International Airshow last month, there was much comment on the design and build quality of the chalet accommodation.

What many did not know was that the structures had been put together in just over four months!

Last June, following a detailed tender process, organisers Bahrain Civil Aviation and Farnborough International, awarded the £17 million ($27.3 million) contract to a partnership between UK firm Lea International and event specialist Arena Group.

Meeting deadlines: The Lobby

In an industry first, ArenaLea was tasked with the total construction of both buildings and interiors.

Though the aviation side of the show, such as runways, roads and control tower were, at that point, already well underway, it was not until the end of August that the cutting of the foundations for the buildings began at the Sakhir Airbase in Bahrain.

With just four and a half months until the show, which took place over three days from January 21, ArenaLea had a massive task on its hands to construct and fit out 40 business chalets and the two-storey VIP Royal Bahrain Defence Chalet where the island’s royal family, including King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, received visiting heads of state, such as King Abdullah of Jordan, and industry leaders.

Also included in the contract were 10 further private chalets, a trade restaurant, an extensive media centre and the tented public area as well as an impressive heritage village providing stalls and entertainment area where local craftspeople carried out demonstrations.

There were up to 600 people employed on the desert site, often working round the clock to ensure the project was delivered on time, and the chalets were built from an adaptation of a design Lea International had previously used for Bell Helicopter at an earlier event.

Well finished: The conference room

Ian Lea, managing director of Lea International, said: “The basis for the design was one that had already been tried and tested and we used the same materials as we knew these would work well in this climate.”

Jeremy Perkins of Arena Group had previously said the design won many accolades through the tendering process.

The chalets were constructed using cold-rolled and hot-rolled metal, glass, marble ‘in fact just about every material you can think of’, said Lea.

And at one point, in order to speed up the process, four 747 aircraft were chartered to bring steel in for the construction. Landing at night at the other end of the island at Bahrain International Airport, the contents immediately cleared import formalities and the materials were shipped out to the site overnight ready for the work crews arriving in the morning.

The operation, which took place overnight on September 7 last year, involved the deployment of the entire Bahrain Airport Services staff!

With their classic interiors, pale walls, glass partitions and white leather furniture, the trade chalets were, according to Lea, 90 per cent the same.

But exhibitors from Gulf Air to Tag Aeronautics and Bahrain Airports Company (BAC) were able to make their own adjustments with BAC taking the opportunity to fit interactive displays on walls and even floors, showing how it envisages the island’s airport will look in 2038 following a large-scale expansion plan.

One major part of the project was the Royal Bahrain Defence Chalet with its red-carpeted, flower-planted entrance.

The luxurious two-storey villa needed to reflect the importance attached to the show by Bahrain’s royal family, who were instrumental in bringing the event to the island.

The Gulf Air chalet interiors

Using pale colours, glass and marble, the extensive entrance hall managed to convey a feeling of space at the same time as welcoming the visiting dignitaries and the internal décor, dotted with suspended large-scale model aeroplanes and helicopters constructed by specialists at Lea’s UK base, echoed the incredible array of aircraft on display outside the glass-screened chalet front.

Waterfalls and plush furnishing completed the look of the chalet which included a substantial meeting room, a majlis, for traditional Arabic meeting, greeting and relaxation, and a 200-seater dining room.

After handing over the keys in record time, Lea said: “This has been a fantastic experience. It’s a very, very unusual show in that exhibitors would not normally receive a pre-fitted chalet – but in this way we, and the organisers, were able to ensure the quality of the whole fit-out.

“The royal family and the Civil Aviation Authority have been brilliant and very helpful. They see the show as putting Bahrain on the map and it has certainly done that.

“It’s been an interesting project, a complete one-off as you don’t normally design, build and fit-out, so it was a great thing for us to be involved in and what’s also unusual is that these are semi-permanent structures with permanent fixtures and fittings so we will be doing routine maintenance as well.

“To give an indication of the size of the project, we’ve used 2.5km of plastic conduit for the wiring and more than 7,000 pieces of furniture. There are scores of other impressive figures too numerous to mention.”