Archinect - News

Zaha Hadid Architects and Cox Architecture's new Western Sydney International Airport reaches 75% completion

2024-04-23T19:00:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has updated its progress on the Western Sydney International Airport project with Cox Architecture. Construction is now 75% complete on the approximately 4,200-acre design, which is located in the expanding Parkland City region. The project cost is equal to $4 billion USD, resulting in ZHA's third major airport design after the Beijing Daxing International Airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport in India.

Previously on Archinect: Halfway through for ZHA & Cox Architecture's Western Sydney International Airport project

In the drone video below, the design's terminal structures appear in the first-phase terminal precinct. The project is expected to open in 2026 and serve 10 million travelers per year.

The firm says: "The design incorporates sustainable principles across its architecture & construction, integrating extensive use of daylight, natural ventilation and water recycling in a modular, energy-efficient design."

View this post on Instagram ...

Zaha Hadid Architects director designs ‘glowing, swirling’ whisky bottle for V&A Dundee

2024-03-25T13:24:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects director Melodie Leung has collaborated with Scottish whisky distillery Dalmore to create a “dramatic glass sculpture” housing two rare Highland Single Malt whiskies. The sculpture is the second chapter of ‘The Dalmore Luminary Series,’ a collaboration between the distillery and V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum.

Image credit: The Dalmore

Leung’s piece is titled ‘The Dalmore Luminary - The Rare - 2024 Edition’ and will be offered at auction with all proceeds donated to the museum. For the piece, Leung worked with Dalmore and master glass artist Fiaz Elson from The Glass Foundry to create a “dynamic glass amber sculpture” to house the 49-year-old Old Single Malt.

Image credit: The Dalmore

The sculpture was produced at The Glass Foundry’s kiln for 12 weeks. An initial molding was made at 890 degrees Celsius and held at that temperature for 15 hours to remove moisture and air bubbles. The temperature was then grad...

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils major waterfront master plan in Oman

2024-03-15T11:52:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a waterfront master plan for downtown Muscat in Oman.

Under the plans, named the Al Khuwair development, the existing administrative and industrial areas will become an urban district with an expected population of 64,500.

Image credit: X UniverseCG, courtesy of MoHUP

The district will comprise five areas: a marina, a recreational waterfront with beaches and sports facilities, a canal walkway, a cultural quarter, and a Ministry campus. Residential areas will be incorporated throughout the master plan alongside arts, culture, and leisure facilities within mixed-use developments.

Image credit: X UniverseCG, courtesy of MoHUP

Building on Muscat’s history as a port city, the development will be anchored by the marina, which will include public green spaces along the waterfront and dining, retail, hotel, and residential developments. Elsewhere, buildings within the existing Ministry campus are expected to be retrofitted and reused through a program of re...

Zaha Hadid Architects will refurbish Le Schuylkill Tower in Monaco

2024-03-12T12:15:00-04:00

The next new project from Zaha Hadid Architects will renovate major elements of the historic Le Schuylkill Tower in Monaco.

Built as the principality’s first high-rise in 1963, the aging 25-story residential tower overlooks the Mediterranean and Monte Carlo’s Port Hercule and boasts 188 apartment units in its present layout.

Image courtesy MIR

Joined by Square Architecte, ZHA will embark on a renovation that will result in a brand new 441,320-square-foot space in May of 2027. The operation will add six total penthouses made from low-carbon (XCarb) steel to the three uppermost floors while reconfiguring the interior and balconies without any alteration to the building footprint, as well as reducing whole-life carbon emissions through a BD2M accreditated design.

Image render courtesy Talcik Demovicova

Other environmental considerations include grey and rainwater recycling, improving the building’s envelope performance, and an on-site waste management system.

The new building will also...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs world's first green hydrogen refueling network for recreational boating

2024-02-10T08:00:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed the world’s first green hydrogen refueling infrastructure for the recreational boating industry. Refueling stations will be installed at 25 Italian marinas.

The project is being spurred by an approximately $108 million investment led by NatPower H, a global developer of technologies for the production, storage, and distribution of green hydrogen. The refueling network will begin installation in the summer of 2024, with a target to grow to 100 stations throughout the Mediterranean over the next six years. There are further ambitions to expand to the world’s most popular regions for recreational boating.

According to the firm, the eventual 100 refueling stations will be operational by 2030 and will deliver up to 3,650 tons of green hydrogen annually. This will erase approximately 45,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the Mediterranean’s recreational boats every year.

Rendering: Tecma Solutions / Zaha Hadid Architects

This project addresses the ...

Holcim and Zaha Hadid Architects team debuts second 3D printed concrete bridge concept

2024-01-14T08:00:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has released details of a second collaborative effort with Holcim on a 3D printed bridge concept that was first debuted as part of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.

The new ten-ton Phoenix design offers an evolution of the innovations seen in the previous Striatus bridge, the original blocks of which the team was able to recycle in the second iteration.

Image: Vincent Delesvaux

For the project, Holcim was able to deliver Phoenix with a 25% overall reduction in CO2 footprint compared to its earlier counterpart, thanks to the use of an updated ECOCycle circular technology and a special proprietary concrete ink that was also developed by the company. The construction was completed recently in Lyon, France, on the grounds of Holcim’s Innovation Hub. Its proponents are now citing it as a milestone for the design industry’s quest to develop low-carbon structural solutions at different scales.

Image: Holcim

Shajay Bhooshan, head of Zaha Hadid Architects' Computati...

Zaha Hadid Architects completes Prague high-rise development with cascading terraces

2023-12-20T11:53:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a high-rise building in the Czech Republic adjacent to one of Prague’s major railway stations. Named Masaryčka, the scheme has been envisioned as “a welcoming gateway to the city for suburban and domestic rail passengers as well as those using the express rail link that is currently under construction to Prague’s international airport.”

Image credit: BoysPlayNice

According to the architects, the complex’s form is designed to establish a dialogue with the architecture and urbanism of Prague’s Old Town. Containing office and retail uses, the 300,000-square-foot development incorporates seven stories within its eastern section and nine stories at its western end.

Image credit: BoysPlayNice

On the exterior, fins within the double-skin facade contribute to solar shading in the summer and “transform the project’s horizontal composition to the verticality of its western facade facing the spires of the Old Town.” A cascade of terraces divides the development...

Zaha Hadid Architects inaugurates Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre in southern China

2023-12-06T18:53:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has shared photos of its newly inaugurated Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre in southern China.

The project integrates three separate facilities for art, scientific education, and culture into one coherent design with a 1,200-seat grand theater, 500-seat Black Box theater, science center, and art museum arranged symmetrically on a central axis.

A central plaza area bifurcates the larger and smaller venues of the design while serving as the connective foyer of all three new spaces. All five buildings at the site are supported by just 22 columns that were fabricated off-site in two varieties.

The separate functions of the center are further woven together via the network of reticulated shells forming the roof structure, which also evokes the chevron form of migratory bird patterns in the region while covering the complex's four wings. Additional public spaces were also created at the site thanks to the careful...

Zaha Hadid Architects' new Chengdu Science Fiction Museum has opened in China

2023-10-24T17:41:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has shared photos and a video to coincide with this month's inauguration of its new Chengdu Science Fiction Museum project in China.

The culmination of the firm’s now 15-year-long foray into the country that has produced multiple science and cultural sector designs in addition to the new Beijing Daxing International Airport complex has yielded an over 635,000-square-foot structure replete with a variety of flexible interior spaces meant to showcase the region’s extraordinary contributions to the literary genre and located in the heart of Chengdu’s Science & Innovation New City Pidu district.

Photo: Lan Dongjie

The firm says the project is designed to emulate a nebula constellation with a star at its center, allowing visitors to embark from within a ‘star cloud’ that disperses energy directionally into different zones housing its various programmatic elements.

Photo: Arch-Exist

Inside, a skylit central atrium welcomes users into the museum experi...

Construction update: Halfway through for ZHA & Cox Architecture's Western Sydney International Airport project

2023-09-06T18:58:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has announced their team’s reaching the midway point for their ongoing Western Sydney International Airport in the Australian metro’s new Parkland City region.

The project will serve as a catalyst for economic development in Parkland City while supplementing Sydney’s existing Kingsford Smith Airport, which is considered one of the world’s oldest. ZHA is working with Australian firm Cox Architecture to deliver the approximately 4,200-acre design.

Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects + Cox Architecture.

The new airport will have a total capacity for 10 million annual travelers by the time of its initial opening. Plans are for the operation to ramp up progressively to a capacity of 82 million annually by the time the project is fully completed in the year 2060.

Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects + Cox Architecture.

Hopes are for construction to wrap up by 2026. The region’s Aboriginal heritage is said to be a focal point of the design, along with a slate o...

Zaha Hadid Architects completes arching bridge across China’s Jiangxi River

2023-08-21T11:27:00-04:00

Construction has been completed on the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Chengdu West First Bridge in China. Spanning 600 feet across the Jiangxi River, the bridge caters to motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Image credit: Liang Xue

The symmetrical bridge comprises two primary steel arches that rise from either side of the road deck. The arches lean together as they rise to touch tangentially at the bridge's peak, offering stability from lateral wind loads.

Image credit: Arch Exist

Image credit: Liang Xue

The bridge’s arches are tied together at their base by longitudinal box girders that run along the edge of the road deck. The ties are designed to counteract the outward horizontal pressure of each arch and thus significantly reduce the horizontal loads on the bridge’s foundations.

Image credit: Arch Exist

“The dynamic curvature of the bridge’s supporting piers and abutments taper into its primary arches and road deck, defining a sculptural landmark within Chengdu’s transport infrastru...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs Xi’an tower with ‘gently curving silhouette’

2023-08-08T12:26:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has released images of their proposed Daxia Tower in Xi’an, China. The tower will form part of the city’s high-tech zone, which is repositioning the city from its historic Silk Road roots to become a “major hub for new technology.”

Image credit: ATCHAIN, courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

The 700-foot-tall tower will contain over 1.3 million square feet of offices, retail, and ancillary facilities. The scheme’s “gently curving silhouette” is accentuated by layers of patterned glazing and large atriums to increase natural light volumes internally. Each atrium creates a “cascade of planted interior terraces that echo mountainside waterfalls,” while also offering views of the historic city and high-tech zone.

Image credit: ATCHAIN, courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

“Optimizing natural daylighting and ventilation using high-performance low-emissivity, unitized glazing with a thermal coating and insulated for low U-values to reduce energy demand and enhance efficiencie...

New construction updates on Zaha Hadid Architects' pedestrian bridge project in Hangzhou, China

2023-07-28T13:34:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has shared a new video detailing the construction progress of its pedestrian bridge project over the Grand Canal in Hangzhou, China.

Concrete arches are now in place for the bridge, which is located not far from the site of the firm’s recently announced multivenue sports complex. The design connects with the larger ‘Seamless City’ masterplan, which is underway on both sides of the city’s Qiantang River.

A video of the bridge’s progress can be viewed below courtesy of Hangzhou CBD Development Group.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zaha Hadid Architects (@zahahadidarchitects)

The firm shares: “The new 320m pedestrian bridge defines the Grand Canal’s southern gateway on the Qiantang River, marking the start of the canal’s journey 1776 km north to Beijing. China’s most historic man-made waterway, some sections of the Grand Canal date back to the 5th century BC.”

Zaha Hadid Architects may lead the design of new Surfside condos replacement

2023-06-16T12:55:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has been revealed to lead the design of a new condominium project proposal at a site once occupied by the collapsed Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida.

The project is being commissioned by DAMAC International, which purchased the lot for $120 million in July of last year. Plans call for a 12-story design whose split massing contains 57 total residential units lined by curved balconies and connected at the roof level by a glass-bottomed swimming pool.

Two separate design variations were submitted to local planning authorities for consideration, each based on “alternative interpretations” of planning ordinances, which have come under increased scrutiny in the wake of the 2021 tragedy.

Scheme B. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

In a statement, ZHA Director Chris Lepine said: “We are honored to have been chosen for this very special project. While no work of architecture can ever remove the pain of the past, nor should it, a truly ambitious w...

Zaha Hadid Architects on using AI in workplace design

2023-06-15T13:01:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has offered The New York Times an insight into how the firm has deployed artificial intelligence in workplace design. Times writer Farah Nayeri spoke with Arjun Kaicker and Ulrich Blum from Zaha Hadid Analytics + Insights (ZHAI) which uses data and artificial intelligence to design workplaces.

“The pandemic has really supercharged innovation in the workplace,” Kaicker told the paper, noting that before 2020, “the majority of office buildings had a one-size-fits-all desk for everyone, and the same environment around them, the same everything.”

Blum shared that ZHAI possessed a computer tool that, within 27 hours, could generate 100,000 designs for a building interior — a feat which would take an architect a decade to deliver if producing 40 drawings per day. The team cited the firm’s Infinitus Plaza in Guangzhou, China, which saw AI deployed to generate options for positioning the bui...

Zaha Hadid Architects to begin construction on curving towers in Lithuania

2023-02-14T10:56:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects is moving forward with a set of low-rise towers in Vilnius, Lithuania. Titled the Vilnius Business Stadium, the scheme is comprised of two towers of eight and nine stories connected at street level by a courtyard atrium and two floors of public amenities.

Image credit: Frontop for Zaha Hadid Architects

The 258,000-square-foot scheme is defined by its sweeping form, with both the curvature of the facades and cantilevered balconies facing toward the city’s historic Gediminas Castle Tower. Described by the design team as “reinterpreting the dynamic geometries of the neighborhood’s existing civic architecture,” the center’s built form is complimented by 126,000 square feet of landscaped terraces, roof gardens, and plazas that open directly onto a Martha Schwartz-designed public square.

Image credit: Frontop for Zaha Hadid Architects

The central floors of each tower house office spaces of differing sizes and layouts. The floorplates connect to landscaped terraces and ...

Zaha Hadid Architects reveals Chengdu Science Fiction Museum design in Sichuan Province

2023-01-26T18:57:00-05:00

The next major cultural project from Zaha Hadid Architects has been revealed after the firm published the first images of its under-construction Chengdu Science Fiction Museum to coincide with the announcement that it will play host to the Hugo Awards later this year.

In the form of a solar nebula, the 59,000-square-meter (635,000-square-foot) museum is designed for maximal programmatic flexibility with the intention of “creating a journey of discovery that weaves between indoor and outdoor plazas at multiple levels.”

Rendering: Atchain, image courtesy ZHA

A skylit central atrium holds the key to the interior design, with gallery spaces, a large theater, and concert hall emanating from its node. Finally, the museum’s hybrid ventilation system combines with a roof canopy array of photovoltaics to help the project attain the maximum 3-star rating achievable under the Chinese Green Building Program.

Rendering: Atchain, image courtesy ZHA

Rendering: ...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs collection of emergency shelters for displaced communities

2022-12-20T11:20:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a collection of tents to be used as schools, clinics, and emergency shelters for displaced communities. The 27 tents, constructed with the support of the Education Above All Foundation, have been donated to the International Organization of Migration (IOM) and the Qatar Red Crescent.

Photo credit: Luke Hayes

Described by the ZHA team as a “robust, cost-effective, and lightweight modular architectural system,” the weatherproof structures are designed to be easily moved and re-assembled, with components that can be upcycled or recycled. Supported by a curving steel frame clad with fabric, the internal environment offers an open-plan layout lit by diffuse natural light.

Photo credit: Luke Hayes

Before the donation, the tents were being utilized as schools for hundreds of displaced Pakistani children in Pakistan, and Syrian children in Turkey. In their new capacity, ten tents donated to the IOM will serve as schools in Turkey and Yemen, while five will ...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs Ukrainian Expo 2030 master plan with demountable and redeployable pavilions

2022-12-06T11:48:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has published details of its proposed master plan for the Odesa Expo 2030 bid. In seeking to secure the Expo 2030 contract for the southern Ukrainian city, the design team has presented a scheme composed of “demountable” and “redeployable” pavilions after the event has concluded.

Image credit: Zaha Hadid Architects

“Future development in Ukraine will see a fundamental transformation of the country’s economy towards energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies,” the team said. “Zaha Hadid Architects’ design for ODESA EXPO 2030 targets the effective re-use of all facilities after the exhibition has closed, a challenge that all Expos share with major public events the world over; creating an Expo of the future where nothing is wasted.”

Image credit: JK Lab

Located on former farmland close to the city center, the proposed expo site is anchored by a main axis that will provide access to a series of national pavilions toward the south and a coastal eco park to the nor...

Zaha Hadid Architects reveals new Science Centre project in Singapore

2022-12-05T17:34:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has shared project details for its new Science Centre in Singapore.

According to a press announcement released today, the design includes five interconnected rectangular volumes defined by large "monocle" windows that offer views of neighboring Jurong Lake Gardens. Features include a network of discovery trails and an enhanced Children’s Gallery that offers twice as much room as the space provided in its predecessor.

Rendering: Negativ, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

An "Eco-Lab" and "Eco-Garden" will serve as part of the museum’s educational offerings, while programmable rooftop spaces, an observatory, and a Digital Fabrication Lab all provide students with the opportunity to learn about topics like vertical farming.

Rendering: Negativ, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

ZHA says it hopes to attain a BCA Green Mark Platinum rating for the project with the help of atelier ten and Architects 61...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs 'stratified, geological' sports complex in Hangzhou, China

2022-10-27T11:58:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled their competition-winning design for the Hangzhou International Sports Center in China. The complex will be anchored by a 60,000-seat football stadium, while also holding a 19,000-seat indoor arena, an aquatics center with two 164-foot-long pools, and practice pitches.

Image credit: Brick Visual

The 1.45 million-square-foot stadium is connected to the indoor arena and aquatics center via a central podium. Inspired by tea farms on Hangzhou’s surrounding hillsides, the weaving, terracing podium also houses the sport center’s ancillary facilities including training and fitness halls, locker rooms, shops, offices, restaurants, and cafes.

Image credit: Plomp

The louvered façade of the main stadium seeks to become more porous than traditional solid stadiums, while the configuration of the seating bowl aims to bring spectators “as close as possible” to the field of play, creating what the design team calls an “intense matchday atmosphere for players on the ...

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.

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.

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...

Prominent architecture firms voice intent to suspend work in Russia as statements of solidarity with Ukraine continue

2022-03-02T17:50:00-05:00

As the walls of the international community begin to cave in on Vladimir Putin and his acolytes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more prominent architecture and design firms have joined the effort to isolate Moscow from the rest of the world economically.

The past 24 hours saw the addition of David Chipperfield and Zaha Hadid Architects to the list of practices that includes BIG, UNStudio, MVRDV, Herzog & de Meuron, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Foster + Partners in either refusing to continue work on ongoing projects or issuing statements of solidarity which have resounded across the professional design world.

“As a practice, we are affected twofold. Our projects in Ukraine have sadly been put on hold by the atrocities,” began the statement published Monday by MVRDV. “Right after the start of the invasion, we began contacting our Ukrainian friends and partners in support, and we try to remain in touch. They are brave, and they are experiencing incredible hardship. We h...

Zaha Hadid Architects is planning a metaverse city for Liberland

2022-02-25T15:25:00-05:00

In January, Liberland unveiled its most dazzling and arguably most convincing proposal yet. Working with Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects, Jedlička portrayed his country as a futuristic crypto paradise through a fully realized city in the metaverse. Picture a national assembly hall, a buzzy NFT bazaar, office towers—all done in Hadid’s trademark swooping, swoon-worthy architectural style.

ZHA principal Patrik Schumacher has been personally spearheading the metaverse version of a disputed quasi Freestate called the Free Republic of Liberland since shortly after it was founded in 2015 by the self-styled libertarian Czech politician Vít Jedlička.

Liberland City Hall. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

Jedlička and Schumacher’s joint ambit has grown over the preceding years and now seeks to (virtually) cement its place in the popular imagination through the establishment of institutional infrastructure and the push for eventual recognition of statehood from the United Nations.

Liberland's virtual trading floor. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

“It was time to turn ideas into something more concrete,” the 38-year-old politician told Quartz. “It’s important to show to the world that we are serious about starting development in Liberland.”

Liberland's NFT Plaza. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

An avowed libertarian himself, Schumacher says the program of parametr...

'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' Eleftheria Square inaugurated in Nicosia, Cyprus

2021-12-20T18:47:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects’ Eleftheria Square in Nicosia, Cyprus has been inaugurated. The project intends to be the city's primary gathering space, establishing new connections to unite a divided capital.

Image: Laurian Ghinitoiu / Zaha Hadid Architects

Eleftheria Square is located near the center of Nicosia, adjacent to the centuries-old Venetian Walls and the dry moat that encircles the city. ZHA envisioned the project as the initial phase of a much larger urban plan that could be a catalyst for the reunification of the capital. The design provides unobstructed views of the Venetian Walls, highlighting the significance of the structures as an integral part of Nicosia’s identity. The dry moat was also opened for public use.

Image: Laurian Ghinitoiu / Zaha Hadid Architects

Through the transformation of previously inaccessible areas of the moat with the addition of new civic plazas, gardens, and palm-lined promenades, the moat can act as a “green belt” around the city. The design elevates...