Archinect - News

Zaha Hadid Architects wins design competition for Tower C at Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base

2021-01-12T18:22:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) was announced as the winner of the design competition to build Tower C at Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base.

The Shenzhen Bay Headquarters Base will be a business and financial center in Shenzhen serving the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau. ZHA designed Tower C as two towers that sit at the intersection of the city's planned north-south green axis and Shenzhen's east-west urban corridor.

Terraced landscapes extend upwards into the two towers, inviting the public into the heart of the building where cultural and pleasure activities will take place. Bridges extend and sweep throughout connecting the two towers whilst offering panoramic views of the city.

Dubbed a "vertical city," the two towers rise to nearly 400m, providing column-free naturally-lit office space, shopping, entertainment, and dining amenities, together with a hotel, convention center, and cultural facilities with exhibition galleries.

The design incorporates many sust...

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...

ZHA projects light on 18th century castle

2017-09-20T14:08:00-04:00

‘Behaviour Morphe’ is a collaboration between Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), digital artists and computer science researchers Andy Lomas and Mubbasir Kapadia, and musician Max Cooper. It consists of dynamic light mapping projections on Karlsruhe’s Baroque castle in Germany. The piece was created for the 2017 Schlosslichtspiele Festival, which presents projections on the 170 meters facade of the castle. Schlosslichtspiele marries digital art and 18th century German masonry to create unique works.

Behaviour Morphe’ by ZHA for Schlosslichtspiele Festival 2017

In “Behaviour Morphe” ZHA presents its latest digital spatial simulation tools used for the analysis and design of its architecture. The projection interacts with the spaces of the castle using real time data, highlighting the research of ZHA’s Computational Design (ZH CODE) on iterative systems of development.

Behaviour Morphe’ by ZHA for Schlosslichtspiele Festival 2017

Musician Max Cooper said, “ZHA's ideas and work fit well with ...

Almost two decades in the making, the ZHA-designed Napoli Afragola Station is finally inaugurated

2017-06-07T13:48:00-04:00

The cosmopolitan, bustling city of Naples serves as the gateway to the south of Italy—but the mechanics of that gate are a bit creaky. The main station of the city, Napoli Centrale, is over fifty years old and is currently being renovated. Even with renovations, however, the station will be congested. So, in the early 2000’s, the city looked north to the city of Afragola, within the Naples metropolitan area, for the site of an additional train station. Yesterday, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni inaugurated the building ahead of the start of regular services on June 11.

The gleaming new station was designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid and bears many of her design signatures, from curved structural concrete elements to Corian-clad steel ribs. It’s designed as an “urbanized public bridge” connecting the communities on either side of the tracks. In fact, the passenger concourse is the walkway bridging the tracks, and houses all services for departing, arriving, and connecting passengers. ...

ZHA designs Alai, an ecologically-sensitive residential complex in the Mayan Riviera

2017-05-17T13:36:00-04:00

The Mayan Riviera has had a rapid increase of visitors each year—over 10% annually—and its residential population has almost doubled since 2000. In fact, it has more international visitors than any other region in Latin America. While great for the economy, this influx can have a negative effect on the region’s ecology.

Zaha Hadid Architects have designed Alai, a complex of residential buildings that marry “ecological considerations, engaging design and a reinterpretation of local architectural tradition.” Alai is sited on a plot of land previously prepped for a building never completed.

By limiting the total footprint of all residential buildings to 7% of the site, the design reduces its environmental impact and the vegetation to remain largely intact. An onsite botanical nursery is intended to aid the restoration of biodiversity that was disturbed by the previous owner. There’s also a woodland reserve and a coastal wetland restoration project.

The residential buildings themselves are...

Take a look at ZHA's competition entry for the Neue Nationalgalerie extension in Berlin

2017-01-09T17:06:00-05:00

Patrik Schumacher, the current head of Zaha Hadid Architects, posted a few photos on his Facebook showing the firm's designs for the Neue Nationalgalerie extension competition. Over 40 firms participated in the competition before Herzog and de Meuron were announced as the winners. The Danish office Lundgaard & Tranberg took second place and the third prize was awarded to the Berlin-based office Bruno Fioretti Marquez. The project brief stipulated that the design must complement the existing Neue Nationalgalerie building, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe.

Zaha Hadid Architects just opened a new office in Dubai

2016-11-08T13:31:00-05:00

With 16 projects currently in the works in the Middle East-North Africa region, it's not really a surprise that Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has just opened an office in the Dubai Design District. As stated in the press release, the firm has 30 years worth of experience working in the region.

"A recipient of the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, ZHA marries concepts of connectivity with the tremendous advancements in design technologies, material development and construction practices," states ZHA.

"ZHA is working with the many diverse histories and cultures of the region to address important issues in a meaningful way - contributing to the development of more ecologically sustainable and integrated built environments."

For more recent news from ZHA, follow these links:

Zaha Hadid Architects to design new stadium for the Forest Green Rovers

2016-11-03T12:51:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has just won another major commission: the Forest Green Rovers football stadium in Stroud, UK. The announcement follows a seven month competition, with ZHA winning out over 50+ entries from around the world.

The stadium will be built almost entirely out of wood, which the Forest Green Rovers’ chairman, Dale Vince, asserts will make it have “the lowest embodied carbon of any stadium in the world”. Alongside a timber structure, roof, cantilevers and cladding, the stadium’s floor slab and seating terraces will be made of wood. According to the press release, the timber will be sourced sustainably.

“The stadium’s roof is covered with a transparent membrane, which contributes to turf growth, minimizes stark shadows for players and fans and reduces the volumetric impact of the stadium from distant views in the surrounding landscape,” states James Heverin, Director of ZHA.

“The stadium’s design incorporates the club’s future growth. Initially for 5,000 spectators, ...

Patrik Schumacher on the parametric future he plans for ZHA

2016-09-12T13:25:00-04:00

[Schumacher] sees parametricism as the architectural style of capitalism, to which he is a relatively recent convert. “My early heroes were Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, people who wanted to make an impact”, but he now believes that free enterprise is the best means of the “human development of prosperity and freedom”. The innate logic of parametricism means that, in a truly free market, with “freer utilisation of land”, it would eventually triumph.

Patrik Schumacher sits down with Rowan Moore, and share his plans to assert a parametricist future as Zaha Hadid's successor at ZHA. Moore isn't exactly convinced.

To thrive post-Zaha, Koolhaas says ZHA should emulate high fashion brands

2016-05-17T17:44:00-04:00

Rem Koolhaas said Zaha Hadid Architects could survive the death of its founder if it feeds on her architectural DNA. [...] “I think there is a model these days where fashion houses survive by working on the DNA of their founders,” he said. “It is a model that is becoming more and more current and it could work in architecture too, I think.”

Related on Archinect:

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Etel Adnan remember Zaha Hadid

2016-05-11T12:37:00-04:00

When I visited her for the first time, at the end of the 1990s, I was still living in Paris. A typical London cab picked me up from the airport and brought me to her (at that time, quite small) studio, in which, supported by her young team, there was an atmosphere permeated by futurism. It must have been the same among the Russian avant-garde at the beginning of the ’20s, when they not only started to reshape art, but also society...

"Three months later I visited her again, since I was working intensely on a project at the French Academy in Rome with an installation by Hadid in the garden of Villa Medici," Obrist continues.

"I realized that the same cab driver picked me up. When, some time afterward, I saw him for the third time at the wheel, I asked about this strange coincidence. He explained to me that Hadid had bought herself a cab that was only there for herself and her guests."

Art Forum also published a text by the artist and poet Etel Adnan. Obrist relates that when Hadid's Chanel Pavilion was relocated to the Institut de Monde Arab in 2011, the German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld asked Obrist to put together an opening event. The curator asked three poets, including Adnan to write odes to Hadid.

"Zaha Hadid's entire oeuvre is an invitation to take a trip," Adnan wrote. "Hadid is a poet of forms and of the materials that give presence to these forms; one must admire them close up and from afar to discove...

Impromptu Zaha Hadid retrospective planned for Venice Biennale

2016-05-10T15:03:00-04:00

An impromptu retrospective of the work of the Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid will open in Venice this month during the city’s Architecture Biennale. It will be the first Hadid exhibition since her death on March 31 at age 65. The 10-room exhibition, which will run from May 26 to Nov. 27 at the Palazzo Franchetti, is financed by the Fondazione Berengo, a Venetian foundation that promotes the art of glass making. The show will offer an overview of 35 years of Ms. Hadid’s career...

The architecture community remains in mourning since the passing of Dame Hadid. Here's some recent coverage since her untimely death last month:

The Salerno maritime terminal: Zaha Hadid's first posthumous project inaugurated in Italy

2016-04-26T14:05:00-04:00

On the long approach from the sea, the flowing, horizontal silhouette of this all-concrete structure, bracketed fore and aft by leaning walls, stands out from the heavyset classicized buildings along the waterfront promenade [...] Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited the site on Sunday, calling it a masterpiece. The absence of Ms. Hadid, 65, who died on March 31 without ever seeing the finished terminal, was keenly felt both days.

The city of Salerno, some 60.5 km south of Naples, gained a major new architectural icon this week. A 50,000 sq. ft., €15 million maritime terminal, it's also the first project by ZHA to be inaugurated after their principal Zaha Hadid passed away last month.

Before the inauguration ceremony, portraits of the late architecture were plastered around the city. "Goodbye Zaha Hadid, Genius and Modernity. Inspiration and Transformation, Light that takes shape," they read. "Salerno will proudly care for and cherish the Maritime Terminal.” Half of the 400-person firm reportedly travelled to Salerno for the ceremony.

Actually, rather than a new project, the Salerno terminal was twelve years in the making, with contractor bankruptcies and other financial woes creating major delays. As such, the building was designed the old way: while computers were beginning to be used, the project was designed mainly with models and drafting.

Paola Cattarin, the project architect, describes to the Times: "It w...

ZHA after Zaha: Patrik Schumacher on Zaha and what's next for the firm, on Archinect Sessions #61

2016-04-21T17:25:00-04:00

The sudden death of Dame Zaha Hadid could not also mean the end of Zaha Hadid Architects. With major projects still ongoing all over the world, the firm had to keep things running strong, focusing on the future while managing grief. After working with Zaha for nearly thirty years, Patrik Schumacher has now taken over leadership at the firm, and joins us on the podcast to discuss what it was like collaborating with her "killer instinct", and how he can continue honoring the "DNA" of her work.

Listen to episode 61 of Archinect Sessions, "ZHA after Zaha":

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The extra-architectural ventures of Zaha Hadid

2016-03-31T20:46:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid will rightfully go down in history for the tremendous mark she made on architecture. But buildings weren't the only things she designed.

In fact, for the majority of her career, she worked at smaller scales, whether with painting, furniture design, or some other venture. One of her first realized projects, from 1985, consisted entirely of furniture, shelves, and other additions to a pre-existing International Style home in London at 24 Cathcart Road.

Her interest in the expanded field of design, including interiors and the objects that fill them, continued throughout her career. For some, this work indicates a crass and unapologetic commercialism. Philip Kennicott, for example, wrote for the Washington Post earlier today, "She spoke the airy language of architectural theory, with all its utopian overtones, but she vigorously branded consumer products from candles to tableware to neckties."

ln any case, her influence exceeds architecture – extending to the runway, the showroo...

“We just loved her”: Frank Gehry remembers Zaha Hadid

2016-03-31T18:37:00-04:00

When news broke on Thursday morning that architect Zaha Hadid had died, she was quickly mourned by a trio of her peers: Frank Gehry and Joseph Giovannini sat together over breakfast and called Robert A.M. Stern to have a group cry. “We just loved her,” Gehry tells TIME. “We’d just seen her a few weeks ago at Yale,” where he and Hadid were teaching concurrent studios. “It’s one of the things we do—we time them so we’re all together at Yale at the same time so we can sort of hang out.”

In a touching piece, TIME records Frank Gehry's reactions to the death of Zaha Hadid, a close personal friend and colleague.

Gehry helped Hadid obtain her first major commission, the Vitra Fire Station in Germany. “She did an extraordinary job with it,” Gehry recalls. “Everybody was impressed, and she took off.”

Among the other quotable moments in the article, Gehry notes that "she was one of the guys," before correcting himself: “[That’s] sexist in its own way I suppose. I don’t mean it that way ... She was undaunted by all the stuff that would be against a woman coming into a field at that level. She didn’t pay attention to it … She was very confident."

More on the untimely passing of Zaha Hadid:

The remarkable early paintings of the late Dame Zaha Hadid

2016-03-31T14:37:00-04:00

Before Zaha Hadid completed her first built work, the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany, in 1994, she was largely considered to be a paper architect – but one whose paintings, with their magnificent treatment of scale, geometry and landscape, established her as an artistic force to be reckoned with.

Toned with influences from Russian Suprematism, futurism and deconstructivism, the pieces still stand alone today as testament to a giant talent, one whose singular vision of architecture has indelibly changed the profession, and the world we inhabit. Some belong to MoMA's collection, and many arose from her competition proposal for "The Peak" leisure club in Hong Kong, which she won only five years after graduating from architecture school at the AA.

From "The Peak" series (early 1980s):

From "The Peak":

"The Peak" Site Plan Line drawing:

"Malevich's Tektonik" painting (1974-76):

"The World (89 Degrees)" (1983):

Hadid showing "The Peak" to Margaret Thatcher:

Related: Zaha Hadid lectu...

The architecture community reacts to Dame Hadid's death on social media

2016-03-31T14:22:00-04:00

Dame Zaha Hadid, the pioneering architect, passed away earlier today. Architects, critics and other members of the larger cultural community have taken to Twitter and other social media to express their shock and grief.

Here are some of the reactions – we'll add more throughout the day:

Tokyo Olympics refusing to pay Zaha Hadid for work on the national stadium

2016-01-14T14:55:00-05:00

The organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are refusing to pay a British architect for her designs for its main stadium unless she gives up the copyright and signs what amounts to a gagging order, it has been claimed. Zaha Hadid Architects, which won the original contract to build a state-of-the-art national stadium in the Japanese capital, has reacted angrily to the attempt by the Japan Sports Council to effectively seize ownership of the copyrighted designs.

New details continue to emerge from the dispute between Zaha Hadid Architects and the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which is rapidly shaping up as one of the most acrimonious conflicts that the profession has witnessed in decades.

According to the Telegraph, the Japan Sports Council (JSC) is refusing to pay the British architect and her firm for the work they completed after initially winning the competition to design a new Olympic stadium. Documents sent to ZHA now demand the firm acquiesce ownership over their copyrighted design as well as sign what sources say amounts to a "gag order."

According to the report, the revised contract agreement stipulates that the JSC is "allowed to use any product of work ... regardless of its copyright." For some, this amounts to admitting that the Kengo Kuma-design borrows heavily from the ZHA stadium, in particular with regards to the entrance, the geometry of the stadium, the landscape design, and structural layout.

The "gag order" implied...