HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER DESIGN BY ZAHA HADID
A
A
HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER
DESIGN BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
Text by Saffet Kaya
Bekiroglu, Project Designer and Architect, Zaha Hadid
Architects
Zaha Hadid
Architects was appointed as design architects of the Heydar Aliyev Center
following a competition in 2007. The Center, designed to become the primary
building for the nation’s cultural programs, breaks from the rigid and often
monumental Soviet architecture that is so prevalent in Baku, aspiring instead
to express the sensibilities of Azeri culture and the optimism of a nation that
looks to the future.
DESIGN CONCEPT
The design of the
Heydar Aliyev Center establishes a continuous, fluid relationship between its
surrounding plaza and the building’s interior. The plaza, as the ground
surface; accessible to all as part of Baku’s urban fabric, rises to envelop an
equally public interior space and define a sequence of event spaces dedicated
to the collective celebration of contemporary and traditional Azeri culture.
Elaborate formations such as undulations, bifurcations, folds, and inflections
modify this plaza surface into an architectural landscape that performs a
multitude of functions: welcoming, embracing, and directing visitors through
different levels of the interior. With this gesture, the building blurs the
conventional differentiation between architectural object and urban landscape,
building envelope and urban plaza, figure and ground, interior and exterior.
Fluidity in
architecture is not new to this region. In historical Islamic architecture,
rows, grids, or sequences of columns flow to infinity like trees in a forest, establishing
non-hierarchical space. Continuous calligraphic and ornamental patterns flow
from carpets to walls, walls to ceilings, ceilings to domes, establishing
seamless relationships and blurring distinctions between architectural elements
and the ground they inhabit. Our intention was to relate to that historical
understanding of architecture, not through the use of mimicry or a limiting
adherence to the iconography of the past, but rather by developing a firmly
contemporary interpretation, reflecting a more nuanced understanding.
Responding to the
topographic sheer drop that formerly split the site in two, the project
introduces a precisely terraced landscape that establishes alternative
connections and routes between public plaza, building, and underground parking.
This solution avoids additional excavation and landfill, and successfully
converts an initial disadvantage of the site into a key design feature.
GEOMETRY, STRUCTURE,
MATERIALITY
One of the most
critical yet challenging elements of the project was the architectural
development of the building’s skin. Our ambition to achieve a surface so
continuous that it appears homogenous, required a broad range of different
functions, construction logics and technical systems had to be brought together
and integrated into the building’s envelope. Advanced computing allowed for the
continuous control and communication of these complexities among the numerous
project participants.
The Heydar Aliyev
Center principally consists of two collaborating systems: a concrete structure
combined with a space frame system. In order to achieve large-scale column-free
spaces that allow the visitor to experience the fluidity of the interior,
vertical structural elements are absorbed by the envelope and curtain wall
system. The particular surface geometry fosters unconventional structural
solutions, such as the introduction of curved ‘boot columns’ to achieve the
inverse peel of the surface from the ground to the West of the building, and
the ‘dovetail’ tapering of the cantilever beams that support the building
envelope to the East of the site.
The space frame
system enabled the construction of a free-form structure and saved significant
time throughout the construction process, while the substructure was developed
to incorporate a flexible relationship between the rigid grid of the space
frame and the free-formed exterior cladding seams. These seams were derived
from a process of rationalizing the complex geometry, usage, and aesthetics of
the project. Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) and Glass Fibre Reinforced
Polyester (GFRP) were chosen as ideal cladding materials, as they allow for the
powerful plasticity of the building’s design while responding to very different
functional demands related to a variety of situations: plaza, transitional
zones and envelope.
In this
architectural composition, if the surface is the music, then the seams between
the panels are the rhythm. Numerous studies were carried out on the surface
geometry to rationalize the panels while maintaining continuity throughout the
building and landscape. The seams promote a greater understanding of the
project’s scale. They emphasize the continual transformation and implied motion
of its fluid geometry, offering a pragmatic solution to practical construction
issues such as manufacturing, handling, transportation and assembly; and
answering technical concerns such as accommodating movement due to deflection,
external loads, temperature change, seismic activity and wind loading.
To emphasize the
continuous relationship between the building’s exterior and interior, the
lighting of the Heydar Aliyev Center has been very carefully considered. The
lighting design strategy differentiates the day and night reading of the
building. During the day, the building’s volume reflects light, constantly
altering the Center’s appearance according to the time of day and viewing
perspective. The use of semi-reflective glass gives tantalizing glimpses
within, arousing curiosity without revealing the fluid trajectory of spaces
inside. At night, this character is gradually transformed by means of lighting
that washes from the interior onto the exterior surfaces, unfolding the formal
composition to reveal its content and maintaining the fluidity between interior
and exterior.
As with all of our
work, the Heydar Aliyev Center’s design evolved from our investigations and
research of the site’s topography and the Center’s role within its broader
cultural landscape. By employing these articulate relationships, the design is
embedded within this context; unfolding the future cultural possibilities for
the nation.
http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/heydar-aliyev-centre/
A
ZAHA HADID
Zaha Hadid, founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded
the Pritzker Architecture Prize ( considered to be the Nobel Prize of
architecture) in 2004 and is internationally known for both her theoretical and
academic work. Each of her dynamic and innovative projects builds on over
thirty years of revolutionary exploration and research in the interrelated
fields of urbanism, architecture and design. Hadid’ s interest lies in the
rigorous interface between architecture, landscape and geology as her practice
integrates natural topography and human – made systems , leading to
experimentation with cutting – edge Technologies. Such a process often results
in unexpected and dynamic architectural forms.
EDUCATION
Hadid studied architecture at he Architectural Association
from 1972 and was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977.
TEACHING
She became a partner of the Office for Metropolitan
Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia
Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at the AA until 1987. Since then she
has held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harward
University; The Sullivan Chair at the University Illinois, School of
Architecture, Chicago; guest professorsships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste
in Hamburg; The Knolton School of Architecture, Ohio and the Masters Studio at
Columbia University, Newyork. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fellow of the American Institute of
Architecture and Commander of the British Empire, 2002. She is currently
Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and was the Eero
saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New
Haven, Connecticut.
AWARDS
Zaha Hadid’ s work of the past 30 years was the subject of
critically – acclaimed retrospective exhibitions at New York’ s Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in 2006, London Design museum in 2007 and the Palazzo della
Ragione, Padua, Italy in 2009. Her recently completed projects include the
MAXXI Museum in Rome; which won the Stirling award in 2010. Hadid’ s
outstanding contribution to the Stirling award in 2010. Hadid’ s outstanding
contribution to the architectural profession continues to be acknowledged by
the most world’ s most respected institutions. She received the prestigious ‘
Praemium Imperiale ’ from the Japan Art Association in 2009, and in 2010, the
Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects. Other recent
awards include UNESCO naming Hadid as an ‘ Artist for Peace ‘ at a
ceremony in their Paris headquarters last year. Also in 2010, the Republic of
France named Hadid as ‘ Commandeur de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in
recognition of her services to architecture, and TIME magazine included her in
their 2010 list of the ‘ 100 most Influential People in the World ‘. This years
‘ Time 100 ‘ is divided into four categories: Leaders, Thinkers, Artist and
Hereos – with Hadid ranking top of the Thinkers category.
ZHA PROJECTS:
Zaha has played a pivotal role in a great many Zaha Hadid
Architects projects over the past 30 years. The Maxxi National Museum of 21 st
Century Arts in Rome, Italy; the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany and
the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany are excellent demonstrations of
Hadid’ s quest for complex, fluid space. Previous seminal buildings such as the
Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinati, USA, have also been hailed
as architecture that transforms our vision of the future with new spatial
concepts and bold, visionary forms.
Currently Hadid is working on a multitude of projects
worldwide including: The London Aquatics Centre fort he 2012 Olympic Games;
High – Speed Train Stations in Naples and Durango; The CMA CGM Headquarters
tower in Marseille; The Fiera di Milano masterplan and tower as well as major
master planning projects in Beijing, Bilboa, Istanbul and Singapore. In the
Middle East, Hadid’ s portfolio includes national cultural and research centres
in Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, as well as
the new Central Bank of Iraq.
You may visit to see others projects news from Zaha Hadid
Architects to click below links from my suggestions.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2013/11/zaha-hadid-architects-unique-circle.html
