Archinect - News

Zaha Hadid Architects updates progress on Central Bank of Iraq Headquarters in Baghdad

2024-08-16T18:09:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has shared new construction photos of its Central Bank of Iraq Headquarters design in Baghdad. Sitting on a narrow site right by the Tigris River, the tower's exoskeleton rises from a podium and gradually widens upwards to reach a height of 560 feet.

The late Zaha Hadid is credited for the design (along with Patrik Schumacher), making this project a significant contribution to her city of birth.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zaha Hadid Architects (@zahahadidarchitects)

Travis Scott wants to pursue architecture at Harvard GSD when he retires from music

2023-05-27T08:00:00-04:00

Travis Scott has revealed that he plans to attend the illustrious Harvard University to study architecture once his rapping days are done. La Flame covered the latest issue of PIN-UP magazine on Wednesday (May 24) where he showcased his love for all things design from A-Z.

For PIN-UP’s Issue 34, Scott spells out his design principles across every letter of the alphabet, displayed through a visually exciting collection of photographs where the artist’s body replicated and contorted to make up the letters. "A" for him is "Architecture," in which he states: "Architecture is my true passion. I plan to apply to the architecture program at Harvard GSD when I’m done with music, which won’t be for a while. It would be dope to do both at the same time."

In 2018, Scott guest-lectured at Harvard, where he provided a master class on creativity to 500 students.

hey @trvisXX, get an early start on your architecture education at #A23Con DM us for a pass! https://t.co/14GlusB7w5
— AIA National (@AIANational) May 26, 2023

In addition to announcing his future plans, the rapper notes his appreciation for Brutalism and Postmodernism, along with Zaha Hadid. He also mentions how great of an inspiration the late multi-hyphenate Virgil Abloh has been to him, which can explai...

Vivienne Westwood, doyenne of punk rock British fashion, passes away aged 81

2022-12-30T12:01:00-05:00

Celebrated fashion designer Vivienne Westwood passed away peacefully at her home in South London, The Guardian reported late Thursday.

The 81-year-old Dame was behind some of Britain’s more salient countercultural movements, becoming synonymous with the late-70s punk rock scene in London and later playing an outsize role in the early-career development of her muse, Naomi Campbell.

Known as much for her outspoken activism on issues such as nuclear proliferation, civil rights, the environment, and other social justice issues as she was for her clothing line and collaboration with Malcolm McLaren, Westwood’s influence in the broader world of design is hard to overstate.

Zaha Hadid was among the torrent of prominent figures within the UK to have worked with Westwood on collaborations for shoes, flagship boutiques, clothing lines, and even home designs on her way to becoming the “U...

Construction begins on Zaha Hadid Architects’ meandering Jinghe art center

2022-10-18T12:37:00-04:00

Construction has commenced on the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Jinghe New City Culture & Art Center in China, following a ground-breaking ceremony on September 16th, 2022. Zaha Hadid Architects won the international competition to design and deliver the scheme in June, which will serve as a new cultural and arts destination for the burgeoning Jinghe New City tech hub.

Rendering by ATCHAIN courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

As we reported in June following news of ZHA’s commissioning, the new center is organized as a series of “flowing volumes, layers, and surfaces interconnecting with courtyards and landscapes.”

Rendering by ATCHAIN courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

“The Jinghe New City Culture and Art Center will promote the highest standards of construction throughout the city,” said one government official about the scheme. “Creating a variety of new public spaces to serve the community, the project demonstrates Jingue New City’s determination to provide architecture and urbanism ...

One of Zaha Hadid's final designs opens in the UAE

2022-04-11T18:50:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has officially ushered in what it says will become a “new benchmark for future workplaces” in the form of a brand new high-tech headquarters for the sustainably-minded BEEAH Group in Sharjah, UAE.

Echoing the surrounding desert landscape, the design incorporates two interconnected dune-like structures that house the company’s main offices with a central courtyard and an oasis-like water feature in between to aid in the overall ventilation of the structures.

Image © Hufton+Crow

Lightly glazed facades made of glass with reinforced fiber panels reduce the need for artificial light in the hall. The new headquarters also comes equipped with a host of green innovations such as on-site water treatment and solar-charged Tesla battery packs and will strive for LEED Platinum standards and a net-zero emissions rating using materials taken primarily from local sources.

Image © Hufton+Crow

Much like the city it inhabits, BEEAH is trying ...

Zaha Hadid Foundation announces new leadership and museum effort

2022-03-07T20:14:00-05:00

The long-awaited inaugural phase of what will eventually serve as the future home of London’s Zaha Hadid Foundation (ZHF) is now set to go after the organization announced a new museum and research center initiative slated for two locations in the adopted hometown of its late namesake.

The two sites will be split between the former location of London’s Design Museum at Shad Thames, which was acquired by ZHF in 2013, and the studio’s longtime Clerkenwell home in Bowling Green Lane, which it vacated last year citing concerns over workspace limitations during COVID.

Together they will house a collection of more than 10,000 objects including paintings, sketches, furniture, fashion design, jewelry, models, and other media that are all either directly from or related to the life’s work of the first woman ever to win the Pritzker Prize.

Furthermore, the foundation announced the appoi...

'Zaha Hadid Architects: Vertical Urbanism' offers a new perspective on ZHA's innovations in tall building and urbanism

2022-02-21T15:26:00-05:00

A closer look at one of the most innovative approaches to tall building design in the industry went up in the gallery of the Hong Kong Design Institute after “Zaha Hadid Architects: Vertical Urbanism” opened to the public last Wednesday.

By utilizing a wide array of various forms of media, including technical drawings, models, renderings, and VR experiences, the show’s curators arranged a three-pronged exhibition that highlights the work of the firm’s five-year-old design education and research group ZHA CODE, explores their considerable regional output, including the forthcoming 36-story Henderson development for the central business district of Hong Kong, and, importantly, showcases ZHA’s innovations in supertall building and verticality across the world.

The Peak Project, Hong Kong, 1982-1983. Image courtesy of HKDI.

Thallus, Installation, 2017. Sculpture developed by ZHCode with ZHD in collaboration with AiBuild, Odico Formwork Robotics, Armadillo Engineering. Image courtesy of...

Grande ambitions: Rome’s MAXXI Museum announces a major expansion project

2022-02-14T17:01:00-05:00

One of the most successful recent additions to the European cultural scene is about to grow after the MAXXI Museum revealed a call for submissions to an international competition for a new green corridor and multi-purpose building project named MAXXI Grande.

The ever-popular Roman institution announced on Friday its plans to build a new building that will be home to a research and development center called MAXXI Hub which will combine with an outdoor exhibition area named MAXXI Green to provide improved access, storage, and conservation facilities for its drastically evolved collection.

Site plan of the proposed expansion. Image courtesy MAXXI Museum

Backed by private funding and an investment from the state’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the expansion will include a sustainable revamp of the existing structure into a key energy-efficient cog in the overall program’s circular economy. The MAXXI has nearly doubled in size in its decade-plus of existence, giving furt...

Zaha Hadid Architects has paid almost $16million to keep founder’s name

2022-01-17T12:46:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has paid almost $16million over the past five years in order to retain the name of the late Zaha Hadid in the practice name. The deal, reported by UK outlet Building Online, included $4.6m (£3.4m) to use the founder’s name in 2021, $3.8m (£2.8m) in both 2020 and 2019, $1m (£780,000) in 2018, and $3.1m (£2.3m) in 2017.

The fees were paid to the Zaha Hadid Foundation, who control the trademark for the late architect. According to Building Online, the fluctuation in figures paid to the foundation are due to the fee’s link to the company’s annual turnover, which have increased gradually since 2018.

The company controlling the firm, officially named Zaha Hadid Limited (ZHL), was placed under the control of an employee-owned trust named Studio 9 in December of 2021, which saw the practice’s former parent company, Zaha Hadid Holdings, relinquish its control over ZHL. In the UK, Limited companies such as ZHL are required to publish annual accounts viewable to the ...

Zaha Hadid Architects' NFTism exhibition at Art Basel Miami proposes a new standard in digital architecture and the metaverse

2021-12-03T19:36:00-05:00

As Art Basel Miami Beach draws to a close this weekend, the twin buzzwords of NFTs and the metaverse have been left ringing throughout the convention hall with the notion that the oft-dismissed digital art platform will invariably become an art fair mainstay as the critical acceptance of the works and their medium continues to grow.

Going into this year’s rendition, many attendees and other interested observers were eager to see how Big A architecture might respond to the new mandate for metaverse spaces with showcase designs that offer real-world locations to host and display the blockchain technology.

Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects took up the mantle with a virtual gallery that houses a dynamic multi-artist exhibition its curator compared, favorably, to a Trojan Horse. The studio says its spatial design focuses on the user’s experience and interaction with one another along with the theatrical presentation of the virtual exhibition itself.

Image courtes...

Wealth is cemented at the top as starchitects continue to see gains

2021-11-22T14:32:00-05:00

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new list from therichest.com has ranked the world’s top ten architects in terms of their total net worth.

Big A architecture remunerates extraordinarily well for some, with the total list’s net worth nearing three-quarters of a billion USD.

Norman Foster took the top spot with an estimated net worth amounting to $250 million. The outspoken 86-year-old has had a windfall of big development contracts in the past few years, which has helped him maintain the position he has held for parts of the last two decades.

Frank Gehry came in a distant second with around $100 million in total worth. Gehry was followed quickly by Moshe Safdie, who also hit the $100 mark, although it was not clear which methodology was used to delineate the two (some publicized estimates have Safdie’s worth significantly higher at around $150 million). Oculus designer Santiago Calatrava was the only other architect to hit the nine-figure plateau. His estimated net ...

“Beauty in unexpected places”: Hélène Binet looks back on her work ahead of Royal Academy retrospective

2021-10-12T11:22:00-04:00

I am very glad to see the genre of photographing architectural space being lifted to the level of portraiture and landscape photography,” Ms. Binet said. This is “not only a profession, not only a service. It’s also a form of art.

Binet’s work for the late Zaha Hadid features prominently in the show alongside 90 other select images showcasing the genius of Peter Zumthor, Le Corbusier, and others. The photographer’s recent centenary examination of Gottfried Böhm’s Cologne churches will be on view as well.

“I think to shoot is like a performance. You have to give the best of yourself,” Binet told Archinect at the opening of her solo show at Woodbury University’s WUHO Gallery 2015. The exhibition opens its three-month run on October 23rd.

Snøhetta completes new extension and landscape for the Ordrupgaard Museum in Denmark

2021-08-16T17:43:00-04:00

Snøhetta has unveiled a new extension and landscape design for the Ordrupgaard Museum in Denmark.

Originally built as a three-winged, neo-classical country mansion during World War I, the museum was expanded by a modern glass and black lava concrete extension in 2005, designed by Zaha Hadid. Snøhetta’s design creates a holistic and continuous path throughout the museum and its surrounding park and gardens, linking Hadid’s intervention with the museum’s original building and permanent collection. This project comprises landscape interventions along with five brand new, subterranean exhibition spaces.

The Ordrupgaard Museum is located north of Copenhagen and houses Northern Europe’s most comprehensive collection of French and Danish art from the 19th and early 20th century.

Out of the new exhibition spaces, two create a continuation of Hadid’s extension, and the remaining three are dedicated to one of the museum’s main attractions: its extensive and permanent collection of French im...

Settlement reached over Zaha Hadid's $133m estate

2020-11-20T13:16:00-05:00

In the four years since the celebrated Iraqi-born architect died suddenly in March 2016, a “toxic dispute” has been taking place between the executors of her estate [...]. The long-running feud has finally been settled in an explosive court hearing involving contested allegations of financial mismanagement, disregard for corporate governance and “clandestine relationships” between the current practice principal and junior members of staff.

The Guardian's architecture critic Oliver Wainwright provides an update on the four-year legal feud over the sizable estate of the late Zaha Hadid — now valued at around $133 million.

"The agreement will see the bulk of Hadid’s assets go to the Zaha Hadid Foundation," Wainwright writes, "a charitable body, with plans to establish a museum and award scholarships, focused on supporting the architectural education of Arab women in particular."

Zaha Hadid Architects principal director Patrik Schumacher will reportedly chair the employee benefit trust that holds shares in the architecture practice, Zaha Hadid Ltd (ZHL).

Listen to our 2018 conversation with Schumacher upon the passing of Zaha Hadid:

Previously on Archinect:

Zaha Hadid's One Thousand Museum Miami tower officially completed

2020-07-08T19:07:00-04:00

Miami's new 62-story luxury residential tower One Thousand Museum is now officially completed with the issuance of its certificate of occupancy from the local building department this week. The property opened for sale of its 84 units last year July when it received a temporary CofO. Vertical construction began in 2015.

Considered the final residential project in the United States designed by the late Zaha Hadid, the 216 m/709 ft tower draws attention with its expressive concrete exoskeleton.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zaha Hadid Architects (@zahahadidarchitects) on Jul 8, 2020 at 3:39am PDT

"One Thousand Museum incorporates glass fibre reinforced concrete form-work which remains in place as construction progresses up the tower," explains ZHA in its announcement of the tower's completion. "This permanent concrete form-work also provides the architectural finish that requires minimal maintenance. Behind the exoskeleton, the faceted, crystal-like f...

Engineers praise balanced form of ZHA's One Thousand Museum in Miami

2020-02-24T12:40:00-05:00

Engineering News-Record (ENR), a leader reporting news and projects in the construction industry, has recently announced its 2020 ENR Awards of Excellence. Judges have selected 20 winners for this year's "Best of the Best Projects" competition. Among those 20 honorees, Zaha Hadid Architects' One Thousand Museum was chosen as the winner for the Residential/Hospitality category.

As Archinect reported earlier this month, the tower's structural design consists of a volume and facade engineered to withstand Miami's sometimes devastating environmental conditions.

One Thousand Museum. Image © Alena Graff

As stated by ZHA's project director Chris Lepine in an interview hosted on the ZHA website, the tower's formal attributes come out of a balanced blend between structure and form. Lepine states, "What you see is literally structure getting thicker and thinner, as needed. There's a continuity between the disciplines, between the architecture and engineering, to create that impression."

Acco...

Check out newly released photos of Zaha Hadid's One Thousand Museum in Miami

2020-01-20T12:24:00-05:00

One Thousand Museum, first-and-only residential tower designed by the late Zaha Hadid in the Western Hemisphere, makes its debut in Miami's Museum Park this week.

The residential tower stands prominently alongside neighboring condo towers and other notable Miami structures like the Miami World Center and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science. Standing at 709 feet (216 meters), the 62-story tower's design reminds us of Hadid's love for combing angles with curves, and of her penchant for elegantly crafting buildings of massive scale. Yet, rather than merely highlighting the laundry list of superlative stats embodied by the project, let's appreciate the structure's design by working our way from its exterior to its interior.

Exterior Images

Image © Alena Graff

First, let's start with the structure. According to ZHA's project director Chris Lepine in an interview with Architect Magazine, "the structure - which appears as if it were eroded form a solid - reads from top to bot...

Zaha Hadid Architects to refurbish Southbank Tower lobby in London

2019-12-04T03:00:00-05:00

In true parametric fashion, Patrik Schumacher and the team at ZHA have designed a striking new look for the lobby of the Southbank Tower in London. Considered to be "one of the UK's most ambitious renovation projects," the office building was completed in 1972 by Richard Seifert and then converted by Kohn Penderson Fox Associates (KPF) from a 30-story office tower to a 41-story mixed-use complex in 2015.

Render by Arch018 srl. Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

According to a press statement by ZHA, the overall lobby design pulls inspiration of flower petals. Using these organic forms the design team took this concept to create a series of overlapping petals to conceal the lighting infrastructure within the lobby. Fluid in nature, the lobby's new look is shaped using class fibre reinforced gypsum and features furniture created using 3D digital fabrication techniques. According to ZHA, "...

ZHA-designed tower containing the world’s tallest atrium is nearly complete

2019-10-04T14:45:00-04:00

A new tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects containing the world’s tallest atrium is nearly complete.

The so-called Leeza SOHO tower straddles a new subway line in Beijing and was designed for developer SOHO China. The subway line running below the site bisects building, creating the footprint for the 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium.

As a result of this complex site arrangement, the curvaceous, black steel and glass tower appears to be two buildings in one. The tower’s twisting atrium reorients the nature of the space to better align it with the historic north-south axis that guides the development of Beijing’s urban plan.

Rendering of the proposed Leeza SOHO Tower. Image courtesy of MIR.

The tower is designed with certain elements of sustainability in mind and recently had its core-and-shell components certified to LEED Gold standards. The atrium’s double-insulated, unitized glass curtain wall, for example, cants inwardly from the extents of the building, creating a narrow cav...

What if Zaha Hadid had designed a pair of YEEZYs?

2019-09-23T15:00:00-04:00

What we have here is a seamless, one-piece, alabaster molded slip-on, punctured by organic-shaped holes and replete with the sort of bulges, curves, and shapes that, for the design inclined, should conjure not only connections to modern automotive design, but thoughts of the late Zaha Hadid’s oeuvre as well. It’s perhaps reductive to say, as we have, that this is a Hadid version of a Croc, but it’s also accurate and curious.

Surface magazine commends West for his study and reference to design and architecture, reporting on his personal acquaintance with Hadid and his positive remarks on the work of Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron. It is only natural, the publication reports, that West's fashion would show his architectural influences. The new Yeezy Foam Runners will drop in 2020.

New construction photos of Zaha Hadid Architects-designed metro station reveal a true feat of engineering

2019-07-10T15:07:00-04:00

Riyadh-based photographer Faisal Bin Zarah has documented the construction process of a major new project soon to be completed in his home city. The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, is projected to be completed next year, eight years after construction began in 2012.

Construction photo of the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Photo by Faisal Bin Zarah.

But before the architecture world becomes familiar with the smooth uniformity of its final form when it's completed a year from now, the photos taken by Bin Zarah providing another, more rough-hewn perspective of the 485,000 square foot project. The metro station's webbed steel construction currently allows the citizens of Riyadh to see directly through it while still getting a preview of its monumental yet sinuous outline. In this phase, it is perhaps easiest to see that the building was designed by mapping the desired con...

One Thousand Museum: Zaha Hadid's luxury condo tower opens in Miami

2019-07-09T15:35:00-04:00

One Thousand Museum Residences, the Zaha Hadid-designed skyscraper in downtown Miami, received its temporary certificate of occupancy and will begin closings as early as next week [...] Developers Louis Birdman, Gilberto Bomeny, Gregg Covin and Kevin Venger, along with the late Zaha Hadid, broke ground on the 62-story, 84-unit luxury condo tower at 1000 Biscayne Boulevard in December 2014.

The 216 m/709 ft tower with its recognizable external structure in Miami's Museum Park was the first and final residential project in the United States designed by the late Zaha Hadid. Vertical construction began in 2015.

Interior shot of a finished residence. Photo: Robin Hill, courtesy One Thousand Museum

The property, which just received its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy from the City of Miami, hosts a number of swanky amenities, and apartments don't come cheap.

"Half-floor units start at $5.8 million and full-floor residences go up to more than $24 million," reports The Real Deal.

New plans suggest changes to upcoming Zaha Hadid-designed Manhattan tower

2019-06-17T13:59:00-04:00

The final New York City building to be designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid may be changing course, according to plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings. The structure at 220 11th Avenue, developed by Moinian Group, was first announced back in 2016, just months after Hadid’s untimely death at the age of 65.

Revised permit filings indicate a change from the originally proposed eleven-story mixed-use building to a nine-story commercial structure in West Chelsea.

New York YIMBY reports that STUDIOS Architecture is listed as the architect of record.

Zaha Hadid's Al Wakrah 2022 FIFA World Cup Stadium in Qatar inaugurated

2019-06-03T15:41:00-04:00

With the first big kick-off for the 2022 FIFA World Cup still more than three years away, the Zaha Hadid/Aecom-designed Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar recently hosted its inaugural soccer match with 40,000 fans and royal family members in attendance.

The stadium—not entirely uncontroversial since its conception in 2013—is the second fully operational venue for the 2022 tournament, following the Khalifa International Stadium redevelopment, and the first newly built site to host games for the 32 participating teams from November 21 through December 18, 2022.

Image courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects.

"The client’s brief called for a 40,000-seat football stadium for the 2022 World Cup which could be reduced to a 20,000-seat capacity in its legacy mode following the tournament," explains the project description from Zaha Hadid Architects.

"20,000 seats is the optimum capacity for legacy use as the home ground to Al Wakrah Sport Club professional football team of the Qatar Stars nat...

Hélène Binet photographs Zaha Hadid's Pierres Vives

2019-04-04T15:20:00-04:00

Pierres Vives, one of the last projects overseen by Zaha Hadid, reflects an innovative approach to spatial design and urban planning for the town of Montpellier, France. The 28,500-square-meter stone and concrete public building was conceived as a "tree of knowledge" by the architect as early as 2002. Pierres Vives combines three government functions—archives, a library, and a sports center—to suit the needs of the growing town.

Interior of Pierres Vives. Photo by Hélène Binet

The landmark project was photographed by famed architectural photographer Hélène Binet shortly after its completion and compiled in an eponymous book, Pierres Vives, published by Rizzoli and Skira.

Cover of Pierres Vives, by Rizzoli and Skira

According to its publishers, the book "is the definitive source of images for the built structure and the construction process, and explores the architect’s design choices, allowing a deep understanding of the work and thought behind the structure."

You can get your copy ...

How should Zaha Hadid be remembered? Patrik Schumacher has an idea

2019-04-01T20:17:00-04:00

Three years ago on March 31st, the world lost the great Dame Zaha Hadid. Identifiably one of the most revered architects of her time, Hadid's legacy continuously lives on through art, architecture, and fashion. Known for her larger than life personality, piercing leadership, and continuous creative output, Hadid was a trailblazer in design and a champion for the future of architecture. Her accomplishments and influence within the profession can be noted as relentless and groundbreaking.

Pulling from her long list of accolades, Hadid was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Prize in 2004 and the first awarded the Royal Gold Medal for architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects. During an interview published in Icon magazine, Hadid stated "I never use the issue about being a woman architect...but if it helps younger people to know they can break through the glass ceiling, I don't mind that." Leaving a truly inspiring legacy, Hadid believed in pushing boundaries, prom...

Is data the key to AI shining in architecture, or will it eventually replace us?

2018-12-28T16:55:00-05:00

The core issue centers around the idea that creatives will be replaced by super-intelligent robots to design buildings, create art, or design vehicles. Yet even as AI evolves across other design-related industries, AI could prove to do more good than bad, tackling the mundane so that you can augment your creative process.

Artificial Intelligence has already changed the nature of industries like manufacturing and cybersecurity. However, where does architecture fit into this mix? A harrowing concern is super intelligent robots may replace the creative practice and take over the design process that architects and designers spend years studying. However, with this new found accessibility in automation and AI, perhaps there is way for architects to view more pros than cons.

At the heart of AI is an understanding, processing, and translation of data. By processing massive amounts of data at a rapid rate, AI allows for fabrication and prototyping to happen in an instant. For an architect, the quick processing of data allows for more room to reinvest time in design. Countless hours of research goes into starting any new project and with the help of data, architects can acquire building codes and zoning data at the touch of a button.

As one of the largest byproducts of the 21st centur...

The future of couture is a blend of fashion, technology, and architecture

2018-12-28T14:27:00-05:00

Technology and innovation are an important part of this, but nature is my source of inspiration. That can not be otherwise, because I work for the body. Many people see nature and technology as two very different things, but I see technology as a simplified version of biological processes.

Haute couture made its debut in 1858 with Charles Frederick Worth's iconic House of Worth. Since then fashion's historical timeline has influenced architects and designers in numerous ways. Fast forward to 2018, this relationship with architects has not faded. Zaha Hadid and Neri Oxman, for example, have used fashion as another element to display methods of architectural practice. With the evolution of the 3D printer, creating mesmerizing shapes and forms has allowed for the possibilities of fashion to transform into something more than just a pretty dress.

Wanderers: Biologically-augmented 3D printed wearables ©Neri Oxman | Behance & Shoes by Zaha Hadid for United Nude Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

Acclaimed Dutch designer, Iris Van Herpen, blends fashion, science, and technology to create rhythmically stunning works. High fashion and the art of 3D fabrication is becoming more and more prevalent on the runway, and Van Herpen's Syntopia is no exception. In collaboration with Studio D...

Zaha Hadid's Al Wakrah 2022 FIFA World Cup Stadium in Qatar nears completion

2018-11-29T14:36:00-05:00

Work is progressing on the late Zaha Hadid-designed Al Wakrah stadium in Qatar, as documented in newly released footage by the organization tasked with the construction of all venues and the necessary infrastructure for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The 40,000-seat stadium will be one of eight venues across the small Gulf nation to host games for the 32 participating teams from November 21 through December 18, 2022.

Rendered vision & current construction progress. Image courtesy of Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.

Initially unveiled in 2013, the Al Wakrah Stadium project has attracted worldwide praise as much as ridicule for its organic design and also found itself at the center of allegations of workers and human rights abuses, as reported by Amnesty International and the International Trade Union Confederation.

Image courtesy of Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.

Image courtesy of Supreme Committee for Delivery & Le...

Patrik Schumacher sues for control over Zaha Hadid's estate

2018-11-15T13:38:00-05:00

Patrik Schumacher has sued to become the sole executor of Zaha Hadid's $85 million estate, applying to remove developer Peter Palumbo, Hadid's niece Rana, and artist Brian Clarke from the late Dame's will.

Upon Hadid's death, Schumacher and five of the architect's relatives were each left a portion of her earnings. The remainder of her estate was to be held in trust for up to 125 years, with Schumacher, Palumbo, Hadid, and Clarke, given full discretion over its allocation.

In response to the court proceedings, the three executors stood firm against Schumacher with a statement made public by architecture critic Oliver Wainwirght.

Schumacher, who reportedly resigned as director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation back in June, is being accused by the other stewards of trying to gain financially by going to court to oust them. The two have been at odds since Hadid's confidantes distanced themselves from Schumacher's controversial remarks on social housing shortly after their friend's passi...