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.

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.

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 gradually lowered by one degree per day until it was set at room temperature. In a process that took over 500 hours, the sculpture was then fine-polished by hand to achieve the liquid texture and gloss finish.

In addition to the auctioned piece, a complimentary set named ‘The Dalmore Luminary - The Collectable - 2024 Edition’ will be released in a limited edition of 20,000 sets. The bottle is housed in a presentation case that was designed to compliment the “glowing, swirling design” of the sculpture.

“The sculpture we created for The Rare was inspired by our fascinating discussions around the interaction and flow of flavor notes in the whisky-making process,” Leung said about the project. “It mirrors the multiple layers of aging and blending that went into creating this whisky, which is the exquisite product of nature channeled over time.”

ZHA’s Leung is not the first architect to engage in the design of bespoke whisky bottles. In 2022, we covered Daniel Libeskind’s design for a decanter paying tribute to Hennessy founder Richard Hennessy. In 2020, meanwhile, Frank Gehry designed a “masterpiece decanter” for Hennessy X.O’s 150th anniversary.