Zaha Hadid will be presenting a lecture on her office's recent work March 6th. Zaha Hadid is a London-based Architectural Designer, whose work encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban scale through to products, interiors and furniture. Recent built projects include: LF-One, a visitor center for the garden festival in Weil am Rhein, Germany; and a car park and tram station in Strasbourg. Current work includes: the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Arts, Cincinnati; the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Rome; and the Science Centre, Wolfsburg. She has also designed stage sets for the Pet Shop Boys World Tour (1999/2000); and for the Charleroi Dance Company, Belgium (2000). Below is a survey of several ongoing and recent projects from Zaha Hadid's practice.


LF one, WEIL AM RHEIN


The project is designed to serve as an event and exhibition space for the garden festival in Weil am Rhein 1999.

The suggested structure does not sit in the landscape as an isolated object, but emerges from the fluid geometry of the surrounding network of paths. Three of those paths entangle to make the building. Four parallel, partly interwoven spaces are caught in this bundle of paths. One path snuggles up to the south side of the building, another, gently sloping, rises over its back, whereas the third path cuts diagonally through the interior. The main spaces, exhibition hall and cafe, stretch along those routes and allow for plenty of sun light and views from the exterior. Secondary rooms 'disappear' within the 'root' of the building. A terrace including a covered performance space is located to the south of the cafe.


The center for environmental research is situated north of the exhibition hall, half submerged into the ground in order to take advantage of the isolating quality of the earth itself. On the other side the exhibition hall acts as a buffer zone, which allows a passive use of solar energy in winter. The sunken beam of the center of environmental research becomes an open mezzanine in the exhibition hall.



ROSENTHAL CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, CINCINNATI


Founded in 1939, The Contemporary Arts Centre is one of the first institutions in the United States dedicated to the contemporary visual arts. The new CAC building will provide spaces for temporary exhibitions, site-specific installations, and performances, but not for a permanent collection. Other program elements include an education facility, offices, art preparation areas, museum store, café, and public spaces.

To draw in pedestrian movement from the surrounding areas and create a sense of dynamic public space, the entrance, lobby, and lead-in to the circulation system are organized as an "Urban Carpet." Starting at the corner of Sixth and Walnut, the ground curves slowly upward as it enters the building, rising to become the back wall. As it rises and turns, this Urban Carpet leads visitors up a suspended mezzanine ramp through the full length of the lobby, which during the day functions as an open, day-lit, "landscaped" expanse that reads as an artificial park. The mezzanine ramp continues to rise until it penetrates the back wall, on the other side of which it becomes a landing at the entrance to the galleries.


Jigsaw Puzzle: In contrast to the Urban Carpet, which is a series of polished, undulating surfaces, the galleries are expressed as if they had been carved from a single block of concrete and were floating over the lobby space. Exhibition spaces vary in size and shape, to accommodate the great range of scales and materials in contemporary art. Views into the galleries from the circulation system are unpredictable, as the stair-ramp zigzags upward through a narrow slit at the back of the building. Together, these varying galleries interlock like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, made up of solids and voids.

Skin/Sculpture: The building's corner situation led to the development of two different, but complementary, facades. The south facade, along Sixth Street, forms an undulating, translucent skin, through which passers-by see into the life of the Centre. The east facade, along Walnut, is expressed as a sculptural relief. It provides an imprint, in negative, of the gallery interiors.

CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTRE, ROME

The Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre for Rome is the first national museum for contemporary art in Italy. The new Institution has been established by act of parliament and the design of the building is the first concrete step in the creation of the institution. A large urban site in the Flaminia district on the northern edge of the historic centre has been allocated for the building. The Centre comprises spaces for permanent, temporary, and commercial galleries, an architecture centre, a conference centre as well as a library.

The concept for the project is based on the idea of 'irrigating' the large urban field with linear display surfaces, weaving a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces. The institution is thus rendered porous for the casual visitor, either providing en passe delight or enticing entry. Our design for the CAC in Rome was awarded the 1st Prize in an International Design Competition in February 1999. The firm has been awarded the full contract for all architectural and engineering services.

SCIENCE CENTER WOLFSBURG, GERMANY


The Science Center, the first of its kind in Germany, appears as a mysterious object, giving rise to curiosity and discovery. The visitor is faced with a degree of complexity and strangeness, which is ruled however by a very specific system of structural organization.

Located on a very special site in the City of Wolfsburg it is set both as the endpoint of a chain of important cultural buildings (by Aalto, Scharoun and Schweger) as well as being a connecting link to the north bank of the Mittelland Kanal -Volkswagen's Car Town.

Multiple threads of pedestrian and vehicular movement are pulled through the site both on an artificial ground landscape and inside and through the building, effectively composing an interface of movement-paths.

Volumetrically, the building is structured in such a way that it maintains a large degree of transparency and porosity on the ground, since the main volume -the Exhibition- is raised thus covering an outdoor public plaza with a variety of commercial and cultural functions which reside in the structural concrete cones.

An artificial crater-like landscape is developed inside the open exhibition space allowing diagonal views to the different levels of the exhibition-scape, while volumes, which protrude, accommodate other functions of the science center. A glazed public wormhole-like extension of the existing bridge flows through the building allowing views to and from the exhibition space.

SKI JUMP, INNSBRUCK


In December 1999 OZH won the international competition for a new ski jump on the Bergisel Mountain in Innsbruck. The new structure is due to be opened towards the end of 2001.

Situated on the Bergisel Mountain overlooking downtown Innsbruck, the ski jump will be a major landmark.

It is part of a larger refurbishment project for the Olympic Arena and will replace the old ski jump, which no longer meets international standards.

The building is a hybrid of highly specialized sports facilities and public spaces like a café and a viewing terrace. These different programs are combined into a single new shape, which extends the topography of the slope into the sky.

At a length of about 90m and a height of almost 50m the building is a combination of a tower and a bridge. Structurally it is divided into the vertical concrete tower and a spatial steel structure, which integrates the ramp and the café.

Two elevators will bring visitors to the café, 40 m over the peak of the Bergisel Mountain. From here they can enjoy the surrounding alpine landscape as well as watch the athletes below fly above the Innsbruck skyline.

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