Art: Zaha Hadid's flowing architectural shapes

Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid is an architect known for remarkable buildings like this one: 

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Heydar Aliyev Centre (photo by Iwan Baan), zaha-hadid.com

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You can see more views of this gorgeous construct at Zaha Hadid's site under Heydar Aliyev Centre.

What I wondered is how such a structure is built. Luckily Buildipedia has an extensive article on the Aliyev Centre's construction. Here's a photo of the central structure without the "Glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) and glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) panel (Buildipedia)" façade.

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Heydar Aliyev Centre, Buildipedia

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To get an idea of what the Centre feels like inside, take a look at this photo of one of three auditoriums.

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An auditorium in Heydar Aliyev Centre, Buildipedia

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In July 2012, Architects' Journal reported a fire that damaged the roof. Apparently some controversy surrounded the design project. The building had opened in the preceding May.

E-architect reported in 2014:

Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan has won the Design Museum Design of the Year Award 2014. Hadid is the first ever woman to win the top prize in the competition, now in its seventh year.

-- Marge

Organic Cities

My eye was caught the other day by this image at suckerPunch:

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ta (David) YU, Thesis: Organic city plaza, suckerPunch

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It's part of a SCI-Arc M.Arch 2 thesis by ta (david) YU.  Here's another view:

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ta (David) YU, Thesis: Organic city overview, suckerPunch

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Frank Lloyd Wright in his book An Organic Architecture, published in 1939, proposed

"So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no 'traditions' essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but - instead - exalting the simple laws of common sense - or of super-sense if you prefer - determining form by way of the nature of materials..."

One of his designs is the David and Gladys Wright house in Phoenix, Arizona.

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From the Wikipedia article on organic architecture, here's a statement of its aims by one architect:

Architect and planner David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the design of organic architecture. These rules are known as the Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design. It reads: "Let the design:

• be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse.
• unfold, like an organism, from the seed within.
• exist in the "continuous present" and "begin again and again".
• follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable.
• satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs.
• "grow out of the site" and be unique.
• celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise.
• express the rhythm of music and the power of dance."

For a survey of the 21 Greatest Buildings of the 21st Century, take a look at this Gear Patrol page.  Another selection of buildings, Organic Architecture: 12 Beautifully Curved Buildings, is offered by Web Urbanist.
 

Of course, one building does not a city make.  And issues of how cities grow are not addressed here. As  ta (david) YU says about a city's evolution--

The forming of the urban context is based on the existing territory, something that changes slowly, and human activities, which are changing all the time. Due to the non-stop pace of human activities, the urban context remains in a cycle of perpetual negotiation. Like organic tissue, the city is always in a state of growth, decay, and rebirth.

 

Note that organic building is another topic.

-- Marge