Zaha Hadid Architects

On the passing of Dr. Lee Shau-Kee GBM, we extend our deepest condolences to the Lee family and the team at Henderson Land. As the founder of Henderson Land, Dr. Lee Shau-Kee played a pivotal role in shaping contemporary Hong Kong. Beyond his remarkable contributions to the city's development, he was a distinguished philanthropist committed to advancing education and community initiatives. In recognition of his exceptional contributions, he was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, Hong Kong’s highest honour, in 2007. It has been an honour and privilege for Zaha Hadid Architects to work on ‘The Henderson’ in Central for Henderson Land, contributing to Dr. Lee Shau-Kee’s enduring vision of excellence in Hong Kong’s built environment. His legacy lives on in Hong Kong’s renowned skyline and its continued development as one of the world’s most dynamic cities. Photo by Hufton and Crow

ZHA Director Michele Pasca di Magliano will once again oversee the upcoming ZHA Studio at Venice Studio 25 alongside ZHA’s Clemens Lindner. This year, ZHA Venice Studio takes on the challenge to design an unequivocally contemporary architectural statement within the historic context of Venice – once Europe’s wealthiest city. The studio will explore a future where Venice prospers again as centre of ideas, production, trade and community - rather than solely from visitors to its history. Last year, the ZHA Studio visited Carlo Scarpa’s IUAV Tollentini Gate and the wider Tollentini campus. They took part in a workshop and gave fantastic project presentations within the Mario Botta designed Auditorium and the Carlo Scarpa Garden at Querini Stampalia Foundation. Applications are now open: https://lnkd.in/eC6vAr7M

Cityzen unveils new tower by ZHA in Tbilisi Encompassing new homes together with civic amenities, workspaces, shopping and dining for the city’s growing population, the Cityzen neighbourhood creates a new civic hub in the west of Tbilisi with 23,000 sq. m of landscaped outdoor areas for recreation and relaxation. Built on the site of the former military headquarters of Soviet forces in central and south Caucasus, Cityzen is located in the Saburtalo district, an evolving urban area served by Line 2 of the city’s metro system. Cityzen is also located adjacent to Central Park, a new 36-hectare parkland with a variety of botanical gardens, woodlands and sports facilities. Informed by the rolling hills intersected with river valleys that wind through the undulating cityscape of Tbilisi, Cityzen Tower’s design by ZHA echoes its context at the intersection of the city’s urbanism and its natural environments. Serving as the gateway to this new urban district of Tbilisi, the tower has been designed as a vertical extension of the nature within the adjacent Central Park. A series of cascading landscaped terraces extend from the tower towards the park, providing south-facing outdoor spaces for cafes, restaurants and other community activities at lower levels. These terraces transform as the tower rises to serve as external social spaces for each of the office floors above. At the tower’s higher floors, the terraces serve as balconies of the residential apartments with panoramic views of the park and city skyline. The tower’s composition is defined by the gradual unification of the large communal areas facing the park on its lower floors merging into the smaller, diamond-shaped footprint of the residences above. This design ensures every apartment has excellent natural lighting conditions and exceptional views. These differing footplate requirements between the lower and higher floors gradually amalgamate, defining an incremental twist in the tower’s overall composition. ZHA’s first project in Georgia, Cityzen Tower is scheduled to complete in 2028. https://lnkd.in/gAhxVghB

Centre of Mediterranean Culture construction begins Located on the Strait of Messina in southern Italy, Reggio Calabria has been a gateway between the eastern and western Mediterranean for thousands of years. The city also serves as the gateway between Italian mainland the island of Sicily. Being at the centre of trade routes and marine ecosystems of exceptional biodiversity has placed Reggio Calabria at the heart of the Mediterranean’s history—and places the region at the heart of its future. Maritime civilizations from across the Mediterranean have influenced Calabria’s rich local culture and traditions. The new Centre of Mediterranean Culture will complement Reggio Calabria’s existing archaeological and art museums by exploring the profound relationship between Calabria and the Mediterranean Sea that has defined the region’s past and will continue to shape its future. Incorporating the essential upgrading of the city’s coastline which has experienced environmental degradation and erosion over several decades, the waterfront redevelopment significantly enhances accessibility to this prominent section of Reggio Calabria’s shoreline, creating a new coastal urban park with extended promenade that encompasses the city’s most iconic views of the Straight of Messina and the island of Sicily. Reconnecting Reggio Calabria’s working port to be an integral element of the city’s public realm, the Centre of Mediterranean Culture has been designed within the waterfront redevelopment as a primary civic and cultural gathering space for the city—hosting exhibitions, performances, educational presentations and industry events, as well as showcasing the relationship between humankind and the sea within a Calabrian context. A key aspect of the building’s passive design is its façade, which is 90% opaque with generous overhangs to significantly reduce direct solar heat gain from all directions—including reflections from the sea—to lower internal thermal loads. The façade’s locally sourced, marine grade anodized aluminium panels reflect the renowned natural light of the Mediterranean while also decreasing cooling demand to support long-term energy savings. https://lnkd.in/eHJuXP88

Over 18 million passengers used Riyadh Metro in the network’s first eleven weeks of opening to the public. The world’s longest driverless transit system, Riyadh Metro spans over 176 kilometres across 6 lines and 85 stations throughout Saudi Arabia’s capital.

The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Metro Station, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, serves as a key interchange on the new network, with six rail platforms over four levels connecting with bus and park-&-ride services to create an important multi-modal transport hub for the city.

The KAFD Metro Station’s design prioritizes connectivity. Predicted rail, car and pedestrian traffic has been modelled, mapped and structured to optimize internal circulation and avoid congestion. The resulting configuration is a three-dimensional lattice defined by a sequence of opposing sinewaves (generated from the repetition and frequency variation of the station’s daily traffic flows), which act as the spine for the building’s circulation.

These sinewaves extend to the station’s exterior clad in ultra-high-performance concrete panels. The façade’s geometric perforations reduce solar gain as a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional environmental sheltering within the region’s vernacular architecture. The composition of the station’s façade echoes the patterns generated by desert winds in sand, where multiple frequencies and reverberation generate the complex repetition of patterns evident in the natural world.

Providing optimal comfort at minimum energy demand, the station combines effective passive design features with a high-efficiency cooling system that is powered by renewables and automatically adjusts to differing passenger levels throughout the day, while sliding door panels on each platform retain cool air within the station. The KAFD Metro Station has achieved LEED Gold certification by the US Green Building Council.

Fantastic photo by Hufton and Crow https://lnkd.in/e9epmDU9

Reconnecting the fragmented urban fabric within the eastern district of Naples, Italy is the primary objective of ZHA’s Napoli Porta Est masterplan proposal named winner of the international design competition.

This area of Naples suffers from the lack of integration, resulting in the detachment from the rest of the city. Isolated and considered unsafe, the district’s inadequate public spaces, as well as its physical and psychological barriers, hinder mobility and social interaction. Incorporating new headquarters for the Campania Region, the masterplan encompasses the eastern areas of Naples specifically impacted by the decommissioning of its heavy industries over past decades. Encouraging the sustainable and resilient urban transformation of the city’s derelict industrial zone, the masterplan introduces infrastructure capable of adaptation, as well as the creation of a new urban park and the reclamation of the disused railway yards for public use.

Resolving the significant traffic congestion at one of the city’s primary interchanges that serves as a gateway to the Italian national transport network, ZHA’s design unlocks the potential to reconnect the east of the city with the historic centre of Naples.

Removing the barrier created by the redundant railyards, the masterplan enables the 30+ hectares of abandoned industrial buildings, including the former Manifattura Tabacchi factory and other derelict buildings in the Feltrinelli industrial zone, to be transformed for use by residents of the city.

ZHA’s proposal also offers additional opportunities for the city by enabling the future conversion of a further 100+ hectares of the district’s obsolete Q8 oil depot into a new city quarter with civic spaces and amenities for its local community.

The Napoli Porta Est masterplan international design competition was organised by the Campania Region together with Naples City Council, FS Sistemi Urbani (the regeneration group of RFI Italian national railways), and the train operator EAV. https://lnkd.in/egPYc3WS

The new Capital International Exhibition & Convention Centre (CIECC) inaugurated today in Beijing

Beijing’s largest and most advanced exhibition & convention venue, CIECC expands the city’s existing facility to over 611,000 sq. m with 9 new exhibition halls, 3 reception halls, a conference centre for 9,000 delegates and a hotel with 410 rooms.

Located on Line 15 of the Beijing Subway and adjacent to the city’s Capital International Airport, CIECC’s central north-south axis serves as the primary connector between the nine exhibition halls; providing navigational clarity, maximum flexibility & efficiency, as well as creating a central courtyard and gathering places within sheltered outdoor event spaces and landscaped gardens.

Bridges above this central courtyard also connect the exhibition halls, conference centre and hotel, to provide indoor circulation between event spaces. The conference centre and hotel are located to the north of the site, defining a new public square for exhibitions and events. The movement of people, goods, and vehicles throughout CIECC is divided into three distinct routes to aid circulation, provide optimal adaptability and avoid disruption to different concurring events.

CIECC’s composite roof system of symmetric geometries creates an insulated, lightweight, large-span structure providing column-free spaces that can be quickly adapted to changes in exhibitions and nature of use. This modular fabrication and construction minimized the centre’s development time, investment, and operational costs.

The centre’s fluid architectural language and pleated, deep copper-coloured façade incorporating large, recessed windows, have been designed to balance CIECC’s immense scale.

Achieving the highest certification of China’s Green Building Program, the centre uses smart building management systems with hybrid natural ventilation. Rainwater collection throughout CIECC’s extensive footprint, grey water recycling, and photovoltaics for on-site energy generation reduce water and energy demand from the city’s municipal supply.

Stunning photo by Virgile Simon Bertrand https://lnkd.in/ePymcK_t

Romeo Roma Hotel: the restoration & renovation of Palazzo Capponi Rome’s palimpsest of architectural layers—Baroque buildings atop Renaissance & medieval structures, themselves atop Roman predecessors—includes a final layer of verticality: ceilings of painted trompe l’oeil arches, heavenly vaults and celestial chambers populated with saints, martyrs & putti. From the beginning of her career, Zaha Hadid sited her buildings in the air, floating buildings on shadow, light and space, relating her work to another tradition—Rome’s. Hadid, and the city’s architects of the Renaissance & Baroque that preceded her, aspired to the air, the skies, and the heavens. In designing the hotel conversion of Palazzo Capponi, Hadid and her team at ZH started where Baroque architects ended their palimpsest—at the vaulted ceilings. Romeo Group purchased the palazzo in 2012 with an existing tenant: a government institute INAIL had occupied the building since 1951. While it’s core dates from the 16th century, the palazzo also includes wings added by the INAIL in 1950s, remodelling its interiors when converting to offices. With little original interiors remaining, Romeo continued tradition custodians of Italy’s grand buildings have followed for centuries—commissioning the pioneering architects of their time to create captivating interiors showcasing the expertise of skilled craftsmen working in the finest materials. If walls are not parallel, the vaults above distort. ZHA evolved this concept necessitated by the palazzo’s irregular geometries: vaults intersect at angles, generating moments of wonder. The palazzo’s 16th C core and its later additions are listed by the government department responsible for historical buildings—dictating its walls could not be altered to incorporate mechanical & electrical services required for the hotel. A second skin has been meticulously crafted for the hotel interiors, creating a cavity between the existing structure and interior walls to house the services for each room. While only a few centimetres in width, this cavity extends centuries in time, continuing the palazzo’s 500 years of reinvention. Photo by Chris Dalton https://lnkd.in/gCwx9g7b

Launching at Maison et Objet in Paris today, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has partnered with GENCORK to create a unique cork wall panel system, Thalia, that combines all the benefits and natural properties of cork’s remarkable materiality with ZHA’s advanced computational design. Initially developed as one of four bespoke designs by ZHA for our global head office in London, Gencork collaborated with the studio to manufacture and install cork feature walls across the headquarters building, with each bespoke wall design reflecting different eras and key projects within ZHA’s architectural legacy. The cork used in these designs is derived from industry waste, regionally sourced, and produced on a small scale, reducing the environmental footprint and demonstrating a commitment to sustainable design practices. Designed with precision, this unique collaboration represents a thoughtful exploration of advanced design methodologies elevating sustainable materials in architecture. Photographs by Luke Hayes https://lnkd.in/eXeBT73E

Located at the heart of Marisfrolg Fashion Group’s Shenzhen campus, the 2,900 sq. m Marisfrolg Showroom interiors by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) are informed by the rich textiles, timeless design and precision tailoring embodied within the group’s nine unique labels. Founded in 1993, Marisfrolg Group has grown to over 400 stores in 100 cities, collaborating with innovative designers from around the world. Featuring the main flagship store, a pop-up store for temporary exhibitions and events, a homeware gallery for décor and furniture, as well as a café and an outdoor courtyard, ZHA’s showroom design embodies a unifying architectural language of dynamism, with distinct elements unique to each label. The materiality-rich showroom is crafted in recycled aggregates, with ZHA-designed furniture and displays composed in a variety different recycled materials including glass, plastics, paper, fabrics, wood, and ceramics. https://lnkd.in/dJ2_9Hwb