Online Exhibition
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About the Exhibition
The investigative spirit on which Zaha Hadid based her career continues in Zaha Hadid Architects’ ground-breaking work around the world. ‘Vertical Urbanism’, curated by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) for the Hong Kong Design Institute, showcases this exploration on the theme of urbanism by presenting a range of design strategies taken by ZHA to create vibrant and sustainable community orientated spaces within dense urban conditions, opening up a dialogue around urbanism in the 21st century.
The exhibition begins with an overview of the ongoing research and development within the studio, often incorporating collaborations with renowned scientific institutions developing innovations in robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital fabrication which in turn informs the studio’s design process. A selection of key projects by ZHA is then presented via a large-scale projection. The presentation reveals series of architectural models, highlighting the studio’s range of work across culture, sport, transport, campus + headquarters, and masterplan projects.
The exhibition culminates with an in-depth presentation of tall buildings designed by ZHA over the past 15 years. Design strategies related to the urban context are highlighted as ways in which to facilitate a more sustainable and vibrant urbanism for the vertical city: density, ground interface, atria + bridges, façade, and sustainability.
About Vertical Urbanism: High-rise High-density
Patrik Schumacher, London 2021
This essay argues for a vertical urbanism that delivers high-rise high-density as counterpart to the modernist strategies of low-rise high-density. It also seeks to address the wide spacing of high-rise buildings that still dominate planning orthodoxy. The agenda is two-fold: to maximise density and to maximise urban intensity in terms of communicative interactions. Density is not only a matter of space saving and the efficient sharing of services and amenities but - crucially - also a matter of knowledge exchange and cooperative integration within creative industry clusters in the knowledge economy. This requires a new high-rise typology as well as a new urban design. High-density urbanity can facilitate highly integrated lives rather than merely parallel lives, thereby contributing to creativity and productivity, and thus prosperity.
Zaha Hadid started her career by injecting a new level of dynamism into architecture. Her work has been explosive, fluid and boundless - forcefully questioning the need for urban fortifications in her drive to establish a continuous, active ground-plane. The fragments of the exploded built volumes drift across this agitated ground, seemingly defying gravity.
Zaha Hadid Architects, Unicorn Island, Chengdu
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid, Hong Kong Peak, competition winning design, unrealised, 1982
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects / Zaha Hadid Foundation ©
Behind this spatial exuberance lies the real need to organize multiple, dynamic programmes within dense urban contexts. This leads to the rejection of closed forms and to the adoption of open-ended strategies of networking and layering. The horizontal was always the primary expansive dimension of this new dynamism. The Hong Kong Peak - metaphorically flipping the Hong Kong towers to generate a horizontal cluster of beams - was the paradigmatic early project of this first wave of work. The big public void, here carved out or captured and framed between the composition of horizontal beams, was thus a crucial intuition in the oeuvre of Zaha Hadid from the very beginning of her career. This idea of the void will reoccur again and again in this editorial.
Since then, the generative digital design tools that became available to our discipline were congenial to our concurrent pursuit of complexity and empowered radically new concepts and sensibilities that ushered in the movement and style of parametricism. Twenty-five years later we are impacting at scale, across all project types. The high-rise typology was the most resistant and last to open up to the impact of the new complexity and dynamism demanded and delivered by the digital revolution.
The skyscraper seems locked in the bygone Fordist paradigm of isolated segments and serial repetition. The tower typology is the last bastion of this bygone era and has so far largely resisted the injection of any significant measure of spatial complexity. Towers are still driven by pure quantity. Their volume is generated by pure extrusion and their inner space is nothing but the multiplication of identical floorplates. They are vertical dead-end corridors, usually cut off from the ground-plane by a podium. This formula has been applied for seemingly good economic reasons. However, this economy, an economy of costs rather than benefits, is increasingly dubious.
The sky-scraper’s organizational structure is too simple and too constricting. Towers are hermetic units, which are themselves arrays of equally hermetic units (floors). This feature of strict segmentation with its characteristic poverty of connectivity is antithetical to contemporary work patterns and business relations as well as to contemporary urban life in general. The time is ripe to challenge the standard tower typology and demand that it too participates in the general societal restructuring from Fordism to Post Fordism.
We are living in an era of unprecedented urban concentration. Contemporary urban life is becoming ever more complex, with divers, overlapping audiences, browsing through many simultaneous urban amenities. A dense proximity of complementary social offerings, and a new intensity of communication across different activities distinguishes contemporary life from the modern period of separation and repetition. Such a network of activities can evolve bottom up in an urban texture that offers the spatial connective freedom of urban channels and voids. What would it take to continue such an evolving synergetic urbanity within and across buildings? The answer is three-fold: dense spacing, voids and bridges.
Zaha Hadid Architects, Bio-Medical Hub as part of the ZHA masterplan for One North district, Singapore, 2001
Courtesy of Biopolis, photographs by Ken Seet
Zaha Hadid Architects, Atrium, Dominion Tower, Moscow, 2015
Photographs by Hufton + Crow
The typical tower typology stacks up floors that remain blind to each other. Due to the usually centrally located core, the usable surfaces on each floor are also highly segregated. Towers are big investments and economic pressures are brought to bear demanding cost efficiency. But costs are only one side of an economic appraisal. A proper appraisal includes both costs and benefits in a cost-benefit analysis. The problem is that the benefit of providing floor surface is obvious and its measurement is trivial. While the appraisal of benefits of navigability, inter-visibility and inter-awareness afforded by voids is not so trivial and cannot be as easily measured. It might therefore be overlooked. What is required here is entrepreneurial market leadership based on the intuitive appeal of spaces with superb visual connectivity that will draw in clients who are willing to pay the extra costs and more.
The idea could not be simpler: All buildings, especially towers, must become to a large extent empty, hollow, i.e., we must substitute usable floor surface with voids affording deeply penetrating internal vistas.
The author has confidence that this will succeed within our contemporary knowledge economy with creative industry firms. Here real estate costs are only a small fraction of human capital costs, and the prospect of increasing creative knowledge worker productivity will be worth the expense of cutting voids into the dense packing of floors and desks. Visual density is more important than physical density because it facilitates density of communication. This is not only a matter of facilitating actual encounters, conversations, exchanges, and collaborations. It is successful already via the thrill and stimulation of being viscerally immersed within a cluster of creatives. This sense of stimulation has its own intuitive rationality: the prospect of encounters, of learning opportunities, of collaborative ventures – all productivity and thus life enhancing – attracts those of us eager to thrive professionally.
Zaha Hadid Architects, Soho Galaxy, Soho China, Beijing, 2008-2012
(left) Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects, Cluster Tower with Mega-atrium, Competition for Beijing CBD, 2012
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
What is the point of agglomerating thousands of people within a headquarters tower, if not the facilitation of cooperation, planned and unplanned? Post Fordism implies that workers are no longer chained rigidly into an assembly line. Production is automated via reprogrammable robotic systems. This new technological era ushered in by the combination of computation and networking, and now further enhanced via AI, has an enormously expanded capacity to absorb innovations. Production robots can be re-programmed just in time and new service apps uploaded to billions. The same applies to software updates. The Fordist mechanical assembly lines had very little ability to take on product innovations on the fly. Here cycles of innovation were counted in years or decades rather than months and weeks. In any case, the workers were still locked into the assembly chain as well. In contrast, all work is now able to focus on continuous innovation: R&D, marketing, financing. As workers become creative knowledge workers, they must become self-directed nodes in a continuous process of network self-organisation. There is no way that this can be planned from above. The leadership is busy building open platforms that might allow this self-organisation to flourish. Buildings are one important type of platform that can make a difference. The costs of creating or renting these spatial communication platforms dwarf in comparison to the costs of the human capital that fills these buildings. A building that wastes and stunts this human capital is damaging the economy, irrespective of its own construction costs. All the ideas, innovations and productive collaborations that might have been the result of bringing thousands of smart people together, are the invisible opportunity costs that are missing from the calculations of each project budget. However, comparative analyses on the urban scale have demonstrated what urban economists call agglomeration economies.
Parametricism has matured and is delivering sophisticated state of the art products at scale. The following projects demonstrate the experiential and communicative value that a vertical urban architecture with voids and bridges can deliver for the new global network society. More than ever, the task of architectural design will be about the transparent articulation of relations for the sake of orientation and communication. Differentiation, interfacing, and navigation are joined in a clear agenda that will require a sophisticated, versatile language of architecture. An expressed contemporary structure, like an optimized exoskeleton, helps naturally to differentiate the tower along its vertical axis. The exoskeleton also takes pressure off the core and allows more freedom for interior voiding. The voids which are strung along the vertical axis might fuse into a mega-atrium that also affords panoramic elevators to fly through a navigation space, functioning like a vertical urban street. An example for this is Zaha Hadid Architects’ Morpheus tower in Macao.
Morpheus is a luxury hotel that plugs into Macau’s City of Dreams complex. The project deploys the device of an exoskeleton that gives ample freedom to the complex void unfolding inside. This vertiginous space of flying can be traversed via 180 degree glazed panoramic elevators. The void is negotiated by bridges that host social spaces like cafes and restaurants. Vistas open out into the urban context.
Zaha Hadid Architects, Morpheus at City of Dreams, Macao, 2019
(left) Courtesy of Melco Resorts and Entertainment
(right) Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects, Leeza Soho Tower, Beijing, 2019
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects’ Soho Leeza tower in Beijing offers collaborative office space for hundreds of small and medium enterprises gathered around the world’s tallest atrium. The Mega-void cuts right through the tower in a continuous spiralling move that opens the tower to its urban context. The smooth trajectory of the void is punctuated by trusses that stich the two slices together.
The twisting surfaces of the atrium give rhythm and dynamism to the space and also facilitate and vary the view up and down the atrium, revealing more than a straight wall would. The sky bridges serves as structural ties and punctuate the free flow of the space.
Leeza SOHO’s atrium acts as a public square for the new business district, visually linking all spaces within the tower and creating a new civic space for Beijing that is directly connected to the city’s transport network. The atrium brings natural light deep into the building and acts as a thermal chimney with an integrated ventilation system that maintains positive pressure at low levels. This limits air ingress and provides an effective clean air filtration process within the tower’s internal environment.
As with our Macao project, it is important that the mega-atrium is not a hermetic space but visually connects with the surrounding urban fabric. This reduces vertigo and enhances the sensation of freedom. Entering this space delivers a viscerally uplifting experience, reminiscent of the tallest Gothic cathedrals.
The view from the neighboring urban spaces and towers into the communication void is as important as the views across the void and from inside out. The void draws its audiences in and up the tower. It reveals to each floor what goes on across many more floors, above and below, inspiring inter-awareness as a first step to productive social interaction. It also provides awareness of the urban life beyond.
The idea of explicitly introducing navigation as a key agenda to be considered in the design of towers goes hand in hand with the attempt to inject a certain measure of differentiation and complexity into the vertical trajectory of the tower. The repetition of the same does not require a special design effort to facilitate orientation. And usually, the navigation of towers is simple: just step into the elevator and select the required floor. As the complexity of the tower increases and public functions start to penetrate the tower, navigation becomes an issue. Navigation means much more than mere mechanical circulation. Navigation is the perceptual and conceptual penetration of a deep space. A legibly configured navigation space is called for that affords a certain visual penetration and mental map. Floors are no longer segregated black boxes.
Such a space invites roaming rather than merely the seeking out of a pre-planned, known destination. While maintaining a strong sense of orientation, a strategic browsing should be made possible, affording unplanned but non-random encounters, just like in a buzzing city fabric. This is the idea of ‘interior urbanism’. The question is: Can the idea of interior urbanism be applied to towers? One solution is the idea of the mega-atrium, the tower as a continuous void that can bring thousands of potentially inter-relevant activities into mutual view. An example of this is Zaha Hadid Architects’ headquarters design for the Tai Kang Conglomerate in Wuhan.
This massive void gathers the many firms of the conglomerate, plus retail spaces and a small business hotel. This is a 21st Century city square, a truly urban interior. The dramatic spectacle of this interior urbanism delivers a thrilling sensation. But this sensation makes productive sense. The visceral attraction is signalling the anticipated richness of productive encounters.
These spaces express and facilitate the complexity, dynamism, and communicative intensification of urban life in our 21st Century Network Society. Buildings must become porous and urbanised on the inside, allowing for increasing inter-visibility between the diverse social activities brought together, to maximize co-location synergies and to facilitate a browsing navigation. Another example of this is Zaha Hadid Architects’ Dominion Tower in Moscow where a synergy cluster of creative industry firms have naturally found each other.
Zaha Hadid Architects, Mega-Atrium, Tai Kang Headquarters, Wuhan, 2016-2022
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
The motivation to move into cities, ever larger and denser, and into larger buildings, is clear: we come together to network, to synergize knowledge, to exchange and to cooperate. The built environment becomes an information-rich, empowering and exhilarating 360 degree interface of communication and networking. However, it thereby also becomes an experience. Lose yourself and discover yourself!
The taller the tower, the more important becomes its mode of interfacing with the ground-plane. A large amount of traffic coming down from the tower usually occasions spatial provisions on the ground floor. For instance, in the case of a hotel tower, all additional facilities like lobbies, restaurants, bars, retail stores, etc. are located on the ground floor or near to the ground. Tall residential towers, as well as office towers, also demand ground level expansion. Usually these additional space requirements are catered for by means of discrete podium blocks that separate the shaft of the tower from the ground. One of our key ambitions has been to find convincing alternatives to the ‘tower on podium’ typology. Alternatives that avoid the intervention of a discrete third element between the ground surface and the tower itself. One such strategy is the sunken retail podium, as executed in ZHA’s Leeza Tower in Beijing. The last two projects featured here offer further solutions for an intensified, layered interfacing of towers with the public ground surface.
Zaha Hadid Architects, OPPO Telecommunications Headquarters, Shenzhen, 2020 – 2025
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects, Tower C at Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base, Shenzhen, 2020 – 2027
Renders by Brick Visual, Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects’ design for a new headquarters for the telecommunication company Oppo places a cluster of towers on a terraced plinth that functions like a podium but integrates the tower with the public ground rather than cutting it off.
The second relevant scheme currently on our drawing boards is a mixed-use twin tower scheme for Shenzhen – Tower C – located within Shenzhen’s Super Headquarters Bay. This scheme pushes the landscape-like terraced layering and multiplication of the ground to a new level, taking full advantage of the adjacent park. The would-be podium bleeds into the park, inviting visitors up into its depth via multi-level exterior access. The multi-level bridge connection offers another expanse of semi-public interaction space higher up the towers. Again, atria are also used within this deep would-be podium.
The agenda of communicative intensification within and between densely spaced high-rise structures, via the combined strategies of clustering, bridges and atria, will articulate a new paradigm for the design of high-rise urbanism. On this basis the tower typology will receive a new lease of life in the central metropolitan societies, where the desire for connectivity (rather than pure quantity) drives urban density. In the future, even more than is evident already now, this super-dense build up will be a mixed-use build up, where multiple life-processes intersect. These life-processes need to be ordered in intricate ways that nevertheless remain legible and thereby empowering.
Master Lecture & Online Discussion
▎Master Lecture Keynote Speaker ▎
Mr. Patrik Schumacher, Principal, Zaha Hadid Architects
▎Roundtable Discussion Panelists ▎
- Mr. Patrik Schumacher, Principal, Zaha Hadid Architects
- Ms. Florence Chan, President, AIA Hong Kong Chapter and Director, KPF
- Ar. Donald Choi, President, The Hong Kong Institute of Architects, President, Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, and Executive Director and CEO, Chinachem Group
- Mr. Dennis Ho, Director & East Asia Regional Design Lead - Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, ARUP and Co-Chair Education and CPD Subcommittee, RIBA Hong Kong Chapter.
- Mr. Anderson Lee, Founder, Index Architecture Limited and Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
- Ms. Shirley Surya, Curator, Design and Architecture, M+
- Prof. Hendrik Tieben, Director, School of Architecture in The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Mr. Simon Yu, Director of Zaha Hadid Architects
▎Moderators ▎
Mr. Michael Chan, Head of Academic Development, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI)
Mr. Henry Chan, Programme Leader of the Higher Diploma in Architectural Design Programme, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI)
Exhibition Photos
Highlight Exhibits
City of Towers, 2010
City of Towers takes a close look at the tower form research of Zaha Hadid Architects through the lens of Parametricism. These 3D printed studies are sculptural in quality and precise in their creation and reflect how the design process is applied, whether through competition studies or through built projects. Parametricism, an aesthetic created using 3D software allows the architect to render form in such a way as to immediately reflect a modern sensibility. The changing elements of the design are never disparate and work together cohesively imitating nature in process and form.
The Peak Leisure Club, Hong Kong, 1982 - 1983
The competition-winning design for The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong was Zaha Hadid's first internationally acclaimed project and marks a critical moment in her career. It manifests Hadid's exploration into the fluid relationships between building and site, interior and exterior, architecture and engineering. High on a hill, The Peak Leisure Club site is removed from the congestion of the city below. Although free from the condensed urban environment it remains integrated with the surrounding land and water. The building is layered horizontally, with architectural beams superimposed on each other.
Serpentine North Gallery (Shell Structure Model), London, 2009 - 2013
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Shell Structure Model
2009 - 2013
London
The Serpentine Trust
Located in London's Kensington Gardens and forming a new cultural landmark, The Serpentine North Gallery occupies a 200-year-old former gunpowder store preserving and highlighting its historic importance. A lightweight contemporary extension is sensitively positioned adjacent to the historic structure, feeling more like a pavilion than a permanent construction. This 21st-century tensile structure is designed to complement the solid historic building with a light, transparent, dynamic and distinctly contemporary space. Pushing the boundaries of fabric roof geometry, the design was ZHA's first realisation of research into curvilinear structural surfaces like shells and tensile structures.
Mobile Art - Chanel Contemporary Art Container (Shell Structure Model), Hong Kong / Tokyo / New York / Paris, 2008 - 2011
Shell Structure Model
2008 - 2011
Hong Kong / Tokyo / New York / Paris
Chanel
The Mobile Art Pavilion's organic form evolved from the spiralling shapes found in nature. ZHA's explorations of natural organisational systems generated the fluidity evident in the Pavilion. This system offers an appropriate expansion towards its circumference, giving the Pavilion generous public areas at its entrance with a 128m² terrace. The Pavilion follows the parametric distortion of a torus. The circular torus is the most fundamental diagram of an exhibition space. The distortion evident in the Pavilion creates a constant variety of exhibition spaces around its circumference, whilst at its centre, a large 65m² courtyard with natural lighting.
Heydar Aliyev Centre (Shell Structure Model), Baku, 2007 - 2012
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Shell Structure Model
2007 - 2012
Baku
The Republic of Azerbaijan
The Heydar Aliyev Centre is located close to Baku's city centre and forms an iconic contemporary example of advanced experimental architecture. The Centre was designed to become the primary building for Azerbaijan's cultural programmes. The driving design idea was to create a fluid space and architecture that stands in direct contrast to the existing monolithic, and often monumental Soviet architecture that is so prevalent in Baku. The building and its surrounding plaza and park were deliberately formed to draw visitors effortlessly in. The arrangement of programme within the building is a response to the shape of the site, which is divided by a sheer drop, roughly in the middle.
London Aquatics Centre (Shell Structure Model)
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Shell Structure Model
Olympic Games Mode: 2005 - 2011 and Legacy Mode: 2012 - 2014
London
Olympic Delivery Authority
The London Aquatics Centre is located within the Olympic Park in Stratford and was designed as a key venue for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Centre now functions in its legacy mode as a major indoor community sports facility. Two 50m pools, a diving tank and seating are differentiated by the centre's iconic, large undulating roof. The centre is exemplary of ZHA's application of innovative design and materials which enhance value while preserving practicality, functionality and sustainability.
- Robotic Assisted Design -
Thallus, 2017
2017
In collaboration with AiBuild, Odico Formwork Robotics
Premium Polylactic Plastic [PLA] and Formfutura Frosty White
Prototype of generative design for robotic production. Over 7km of continuous plastic filament robotically printed over robotically hot-wire-cut foam mould.
Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Science Museum: Design history of fabric pods
Various design iterations developed to negotiate multiple conflicting constraints like space planning visitor experience, fabric-seaming and structural requirements, lighting, etc.
Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Science Museum: Flow field visualisation of curatorial object positions, London, 2014 - 2016
2014 - 2016
London
Gypsum 3D Print
Visualisation of the direction and strength of 'turbulence' field within a fluid.
Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Science Museum: Flow field visualisation of flooring and benches
- Digital Timber -
Weathered Timber Glulam Cladding Prototype Cutaway, Roatan, 2021
2021
Roatan
Sponsored by Circular Factory at Hooke Park
Timber
A performance prototype demonstrating a digitised end-to-end tool chain for robotic manufacture near project site. The element is created using a bespoke cross laminated strategy. Lamella grains are aligned to principal curvature axes. The geometry is singly curved and is cut using a bandsaw in a digitally empowered supply chain. A portion of the cladding was exposed to the elements for 14 months to test the bespoke method for manufacture.
Interior Cutaway Section of Residential Building Unit, Roatan, 2020 - In progress
2020 - In progress
Roatan
In collaboration with AKTII and Circular Factory
Gypsum print
A 'Tall' four voxel palapa roof configured Residential Building Unit (RBU), with a mezzanine space plan and interiors fitout configuration.
Bend Plate Study, 2021
2021
In collaboration with University of Calgary LID
Plywood, Metal Rod, Thermoplastic PLA
Study for an analogue actuation pin plate used in the fabrication of curved parts.
Digital Actuated Bending Plate Replica, scale 1:2, 2021
In collaboration with University of Calgary LID
Gypsum Print and Thermoplastic PLA
A motorised actuation pin plate corresponding to control point of curved part. The pistons are actuated via electric motors and digitally controlled in the creation of curved timber glue laminated elements.
Curved Laminated Spatial Structure Node Element, 2021
2021
In collaboration with University of Calgary LID
1/4" and 1/8'' "Rubber" Plywood
A glue laminated timber element, bent using a digitally assisted actuation pin plate. The lamellas are laser cut in various widths and counts per node, corresponding to load concentration at that position. Rubber ply is a plywood with a layer of veneer that makes it more flexible and amicable for bending.
Scaled Model of Spatial Curved Laminated Timber Structure for Digital Futures 2021, 2021
2021
In collaboration with University of Calgary LID
Gypsum print
Use of 3D graphic statics in the development of a column demonstration structure comprised of glue laminated timber elements. Parts are digitally fabricated using an actuated bending table. The lamellas are laser cut in various widths and counts per node, corresponding to load concentration at that position.
Disruption Days. Concept model of amenity space distribution with staggered funnels, Mexico City, 2018
2018
Mexico City
Gypsum print
Study of distributing owner-occupied and for-rent houses within a tower. Here, amenity spaces including shared social spaces and terraces are configured around a series of staggered funnels from which floor and unit distribution proceed.
Disruption Days. Housing distribution study for an 'owner-occupied' and 'rental' proposal within a tower building, Mexico City, 2018
2018
Mexico City
Gypsum print
Study of distributing owner-occupied and for-rent houses within a tower. Here, amenity spaces including shared social spaces and terraces are configured around a series of staggered funnels from which floor and unit distribution proceed.
- Cyber Physical – Metaverse -
Gameplay Player Traversal Paths, 2021
2021
Collaboration with Tencent, PubG Mobile
Gypsum print and Perspex
Developed as a mobile gaming structure for battle royale play, the project explores geometric attributes, such as Line of Sight and Cone of Vision, through varied gameplay strategies. The model presents the gameplay as player-coloured-paths for individual players, each tracing various game strategies, movements, and experiences of interaction.
Cyber-Urban Incubator Project - Plaza, 2021
2021
Gypsum print
Studies for a metaverse city - anchor buildings and schematic masterplan layout.
Cyber-Urban Incubator Project - Exhibition Building, 2021
2021
Gypsum print
Studies for a metaverse city, showing anchor buildings and schematic masterplan layout.
- Function Img Graph Reps -
Cirratus Vase, 2016
2016
Collaboration with XTreeE
Concrete
An interpretation of a classic a vase by architect Alvar Aalto, this sculpture revisits the concept of differential growth as expressed in the additive, layer-by-layer process of its making in large scale concrete printing. A bespoke algorithm produces complex double curvature geometry that adheres to the manufacturing constraints.
Study Models of Metro Station Canopies Variations, 2019 - In progress
2019 - in progress
Dnipro
Gypsum print
Parametric graph-based set of ultra-thin corrugated steel shells structures designed to serve as entrance canopies for the new expansion of Dnipro's metro line.
3D Printed Concrete Balustrade Block, Striatus Bridge, 2021
2021
Two-component (2K) concrete ink print
Project by Block Research Group (BRG) at ETH Zurich and Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Design Group (ZHA CODE), in collaboration with incremental3D (in3D), made possible by Holcim.
Unlike typical extrusion 3D printing in simple horizontal layers, Striatus uses a two-component (2K) concrete ink with corresponding printing head and pumping arrangement to precisely print non-uniform and non-parallel layers.
This new generation of 3D concrete printing in combination with the arched masonry design allows the resulting components to be used structurally without any reinforcement or post-tensioning. © BRG, ZHA, IN3D
- Curved and Developable -
Study Model of Curve Crease Fold Rocking Chair, 2013
2013
Collaboration with Architectural Association Design Research Lab
Polypropylene sheet
Study for a curve crease folded rocking chair. Harnessing generations of structurally robust curved geometries from sheet material, by considered placement of scoring patterns and subsequent folding.
Study for Curve Crease Fold Table, 2014
2014
Collaboration with Robofold
Polypropylene sheet
Detail study for a curve crease folded table corner. The model is folded from a flat sheet of plastic and perforated along the ruling direction of the singly curved surfaces to further facilitate and articulate the folding process.
Studies for a Curve Crease Folded Perforated Serving Platter, 2014
2014
Polypropylene sheet
Tableware study models folded from flat sheet.
Curved Crease Folded Pleated Canopy, 2014
2014
Gypsum print
This short conceptual design exercise attempted to apply on-going research in fabrication aware architectural geometry in a commercial design context of designing the canopy for a restaurant. Various research interests such as structurally informed geometry curved-crease folding and timber construction were explored for this proposal.
Volu Dining Pavilion, 2015
2015
Collaboration with One to One
Gypsum print
A contemporary dining pavilion that fuses computational design, lightweight engineering, and precision fabrication. Volu's design embeds the tectonics of its manufacture within the form itself. Defined by digital processes, the pavilion is developed with components that are at most single-curved.
- ZHA Portfolio Models -
Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing, 2012 - 2019
2012 - 2019
Beijing
Beijing New Airport Headquarters (BNAH)
The Beijing Daxing International Airport is located 46km south of the city centre. Echoing principles within traditional Chinese architecture that organise interconnected spaces around a central courtyard, the terminal's design guides all passengers seamlessly to the departure, arrival or transfer zones. Six flowing forms within the terminal's vaulted roof reach to the ground to support the structure and bring natural light within, directing all passengers towards the courtyard. Natural light also enters the terminal via a network of linear skylights that provide an intuitive system of navigation throughout the building, guiding passengers to and from their departure gates.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, 2007 - 2014
2007 - 2014
Seoul
Seoul Metropolitan Government
The Dongdaemun Design Park, DDP, is designed as a cultural hub at the centre of Dongdaemun, a historic district of Seoul. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape that connects the city, park and architecture together. Voids and inflections in the park's surface give visitors glimpses into the innovative world of design below ground, making the DDP an important link between the city's contemporary culture, emerging nature, and history. The park reinterprets the spatial concepts of traditional Korean garden design: layering, horizontality, blurring relationship between the interior and the exterior.
Infinitus Plaza, Guangzhou, 2016 - 2021
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2016 - 2021
Guangzhou
LKK Health Products Group (LKKHPG)
Infinitus Plaza is the new global headquarters of Infinitus China. Designed over eight storeys and arranged around central atria and courtyards, the project's layout follows the arrangement of the symbol for infinity "∞". The design creates a variety of shared indoor and outdoor spaces that build the strong sense of community which defines Infinitus' corporate culture. The interconnecting bridges house a variety of flexible communal spaces for employees that promote individual and overall wellness including gym and exercise rooms, recreation and relaxation zones as well as restaurant and cafe. The bridges also connect the plaza's offices with further shopping and dining areas.
Opus, Dubai, 2013 - 2020
2013 - 2020
Dubai
Omniyat Properties
Located on a prestigious waterfront plot within Dubai's new master planned Business Bay district, the gem-like Opus Tower unites a diverse programme of serviced apartments, luxury hotel rooms, commercial accommodation and offices. The building is conceived as a functional podium and cube which hovers above the ground. Eroded in its centre is a freeform void which is clad in tinted double-glazing, allowing views inside and through the space. During the day, the cube appears full and the void appears empty. At night, a spectacular lighting design activates the void and brings the space to life as an iconic presence in Dubai's skyline.
Unicorn Island Masterplan, Chengdu, 2018 - In progress
2018 - In progress
Chengdu
Chengdu Tianfu New Area Investment Group
The 67-hectare Unicorn Island masterplan within the Tianfu New Area will foster the continued growth of China's digital economy, creating living and working environments for Chinese and international companies. The parkland design includes many green civic spaces, water conservation and enhanced connectivity to create its living and working environments; following concepts that are redefining the true measure of a building's efficiency as the improved wellbeing of its inhabitants. Integrated clusters of buildings surround Unicorn Island's central plaza and metro station; its radial masterplan enables the entire island to be accessed by a few minutes' walk or bike ride.
London Aquatics Centre, London
Olympic Games Mode: 2005 - 2011 and Legacy Mode: 2012 - 2014
London
Olympic Delivery Authority
Located within the Olympic Park in Stratford, the London Aquatics Centre now functions in its legacy mode as a major indoor community leisure and sports facility. The centre is exemplary of ZHA's application of innovative design and materials which enhance value while preserving practicality, functionality and sustainability. The architectural concept of the London Aquatics Centre is inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion. The undulating roof sweeps up from the ground as a wave, creating spaces and a surrounding environment in sympathy with the river landscape of the Olympic Park.
New National Stadium of Japan, Tokyo, 2012 / Unbuilt
2012 / Unbuilt
Tokyo
Japan Sports Council
The proposed design for the New National Stadium of Japan is integrated within the urban fabric of Tokyo. The building volume is articulated as an assembly of stadium bowl, structural skeleton, cladding membranes and the museum, together forming an intricate structural composition that is both light and cohesive. The unique stadium roof structure defines an iconic silhouette, with an intricate assembly of efficient long-spanning structural ribs, which are spanned by a system of lightweight, translucent membranes. The interior of the stadium is also given a clear identity through the strong roof structure that contrasts with the lightness of the translucent membrane tensile structures.
- Vertical Urbanism Models -
CECEP Shanghai Campus, Shanghai, 2020 - In progress
2020 - In progress
Shanghai
CECEP
The new CECEP 218,000 m² campus in Shanghai sets new benchmarks for the city in energy conservation, efficiency and sustainability. The mixed-used urban campus has been designed to be the 'greenest' building in the city with sustainability embedded into every aspect of its design and construction. It has achieved more than 90 credits in China's exacting Three Star Green Building Rating system - the highest score for any building in Shanghai. Composed as a series of interlocking rings that reduce its perceived scale, the design creates public spaces within the elevations in a series of external sky lobbies connecting interior and exterior spaces.
Mercury House, Paceville, 2017 - In progress
2017 - In progress
Paceville
Mercury Towers Ltd.
Model Courtesy of Mercury Towers Ltd.
The renovation and redevelopment of Mercury House is located within Malta's most dynamic urban environment. Creating new public spaces and amenities for the island's residents and visitors, the design responds to Paceville's key urban challenges by investing in its civic realm and increasing its housing supply. The 31-storey tower of residential apartments and hotel is aligned at street level to integrate with the existing urban fabric and reduce its footprint, maximizing civic space within the new piazza. Conceived as two volumes stacked vertically, the tower incorporates a realignment that expresses the different functional programmes within.
Tower C, Shenzhen, 2020 - In progress
2020 - in progress
Shenzhen
Shenzhen Bay Super Base Construction Headquarters Office
Tower C is located within Shenzhen's new financial centre 'Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base'. The project, consisting of two towers linked by a multi-storey podium, connects directly with the adjacent park and plazas, and transforms into a terraced landscape extending upwards within its two towers. The design invites the public into the heart of the building where cultural and leisure attractions are housed in sweeping bridges, tying the towers together to give panoramic views of the city. The Tower's lower levels unite the park's landscapes with the civic plazas, providing direct pedestrian access and daylight to the public transport interchange below ground.
Yulon,Taipei, 2009 - In progress
2009 - In progress
Taipei
Yulon Group
Situated in New Taipei City, the 360,000m² Yulon Town project is subdivided into two zones, commercial and residential. Creating a new iconic cityscape landmark, the concept for the project is that of a bouquet. The commercial zone, which includes a shopping centre, food court and car parking, is situated within a podium with three towers placed above. The residential zone has been organised in a set of 3 towers which connect at the top providing a swimming pool and rooftop garden.
Libertador Apartments, Buenos Aires, 2016 - In progress
2016 - In progress
Buenos Aires
Grupo Portland Construction
Zaha Hadid Architects is providing Interior Design services for a luxury condominium in the heart of Buenos Aires. This project will have 40,000 m² saleable building, located in the main avenue in Buenos Aires, Av. Libertador, in one of the best neighbourhoods of the city. This luxury housing building will have views to the Palermo Lakes, and the best horse racecourse and Polo field. The apartments will be among 200 and 500 m² each.
Mandarin Oriental, Melbourne, 2016 / Unbuilt
2016 / Unbuilt
Melbourne
Landream
This mixed-use 185-metre tower located in Melbourne's Central Business District, incorporates retail, a hotel, commercial and residential components with diverse apartment typologies and designs. The façade of the tower is comprised of a colonnade of sculptural, curved columns that supports a unique façade system. The arrangement of the proposed tower takes its inspiration from its mixed-use programme, diluting the building's overall volume into a series of smaller stacked 'vases', each housing a different programmatic element. Easily accessible communal spaces are created at the junction between each vase, offering the public and residents a new way to experience the city.
1000 Museum, Miami, 2012 - 2019
2012 - 2019
Miami
1000 Biscayne Tower, LLC
1000 Museum is a 62-storey residential tower located opposite Museum Park in Miami. The tower's expressive structure, known as exoskeleton, offers living areas uninterrupted by internal columns and represents a trajectory of research into high-rise construction that merges fluid architectural expression with advanced engineering. The flowing, structural frame encases a slender building volume, connecting the tower to its podium through one continuous, unifying feature, avoiding the typical configuration of a tower resting on a base. The structure presents one continuous frame, with the columns at its base fanning out, and forms a rigid tube highly resistant to Miami's demanding wind loads.
OPPO Headquarters, Shenzhen, 2019 - In progress
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2019 - in progress
Shenzhen
Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd.
The new OPPO Headquarters will be an architectural embodiment of the company's brand and philosophy. Consisting of four interconnected towers, ZHA's design for the OPPO HQ transforms the traditional tower structure into a slim curved shape and distributes its volume, creating a delicate and harmonious relationship. The building's linear and sinuous appearance, rotated to maximize views of the bay, is a result of positioning the "technical" core outside of the buildings. This intervention frees up the central space for open, free-flowing employee interaction and unobstructed views, creating strong vertical connections across the different buildings.
Leeza SOHO, Beijing, 2015 - 2019
2015 - 2019
Beijing
SOHO中國
Located on Lize Road in southwest Beijing, the 45-storey Leeza SOHO tower is designed as two self-supporting towers which provides a highly efficient structural frame and reduces the structural stress of each tower. Leeza SOHO's site is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel, being situated adjacent to the business district's rail station at the intersection of five new lines: currently under construction on Beijing's Subway network. Straddling this tunnel, the tower's design divides its volume into two halves, enclosed by a single façade shell. The emerging space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating the world's tallest atrium at 194.15m.
Generali Tower, Milan, 2004 - 2018
2004 - 2018
Milan
CityLife Consortium
Generali Tower, within the CityLife masterplan project, is located right above the Tre Torri station of the city's metro system. CityLife is the largest new civic space and public park created in the city since Parco Sempione opened 130 years ago; providing new civic spaces, public parks and residential areas, shopping districts and corporate offices. The tower excels in international benchmarks for efficiency. Its double-façade of sun-deflecting louvers flanked by glazing provides efficient environmental control for each floor and ensures excellent energy performance, contributing to Generali Tower's LEED Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council.
Nanjing International Youth Cultural Centre, Nanjing, 2011 - 2017
2011 - 2017
Nanjing
Hexi New Town Planning Bureau
The Nanjing International Youth Cultural Centre is located in Nanjing's new central business district (CBD). The project includes a 106,500 m² conference centre, two towers totalling 258,500 m², 100,000 m² of basement area, and the plaza that terminates the CBD's main axis on the riverfront. The wall design considers the angle of the entire building from wind and rain, and the materials do not absorb dust. The panels of the façade, the doors and windows are all hollow, which lowers the carbon impact, and has the effect of heat preservation. The project adopts the technology of combined cooling, heating, and power. The energy-saving rate of Nanjing International Youth Cultural Centre has reached 65%.
D’Leedon, Singapore, 2007 - 2014
2007 - 2014
Singapore
CapitaLand-Led Consortium
This master planned, high-rise residential project provides seven 150m-tall towers, plus twelve semi-detached villas. The development's overall layout has been generated by the roads, buildings and topography surrounding the site, connecting the development with the wider neighbourhood. The project was delivered on a challenging site that contains two live metro tunnels and the principal underground water main into Singapore from Malaysia. With the towers occupying just 22% of the total site and a range of sustainable design features and systems, the scheme has been awarded Singapore's BCA Green Mark GoldPLUS sustainability certification for resource efficiency and liveability.
Jockey Club Innovation Tower, Hong Kong, 2007 - 2014
2007 - 2014
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
This 15-storey urban tower accommodates the many programmes that make up the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design, including the research-led Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation. The building sits on a narrow, irregular site at the north-eastern tip of the university's existing campus and houses 1,800+ students and staff. The design dissolves the classic 'tower and podium' typology to form a seamless composition, to spatially connect the development with the wider university and campus, and to encourage interdisciplinary engagement between the various housed design programmes.
The Henderson, Hong Kong, 2018 - In progress
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2018 - In progress
Hong Kong
Henderson Land
Model Courtesy of Henderson Land
Located in the heart of Hong Kong's central business district, the 36-storey 'The Henderson' tower replaces a multi-storey car park to create an urban oasis adjacent to Chater Garden. The design reinterprets the structural forms and layering of a Bauhinia bud about to blossom. With its base elevated above the ground, the redevelopment connects with the adjacent public gardens and parks. These tranquil outdoor areas flow into the generous communal spaces of the interior; the craftsmanship and precision of the curved glass façade enhancing this seamless connectivity between the building's interiors and the surrounding gardens and city beyond.
Morpheus at City of Dreams (Presentation model), Macau, 2013 - 2018
2013 - 2018
Cotai, Macau
Melco Resorts and Entertainment
Informed by the fluid forms within China's rich traditions of jade carving, the design for Morpheus at City of Dreams combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion. It was conceived as a vertical extrusion of its rectangular footprint. A series of voids is carved through its centre to create an urban window connecting the hotel's interior communal spaces with the city and generating the sculptural forms that define the hotel's public spaces.
Morpheus at City of Dreams (Atrium Studies), Macau, 2013 - 2018
Learning Resource
Exhibition Guide (Download PDF)
Events & Public Services
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Online Programme: |
Online Master Lecture X Roundtable Discussion |
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Topic: |
Vertical Urbanism - The current practice in Asia and its future |
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Date: |
24 March 2022 (Thursday) |
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Time: |
5pm – 5:30 pm HKT Master Lecture |
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Lecture Speaker: |
▎Master Lecture Keynote Speaker ▎ Mr. Patrik Schumacher, Principal, Zaha Hadid Architects ▎Roundtable Discussion Panelists ▎ 1. Mr. Patrik Schumacher, Principal, Zaha Hadid Architects 2. Ms. Florence Chan, President, AIA Hong Kong Chapter and Director, KPF 3. Ar. Donald Choi, President, The Hong Kong Institute of Architects, President, Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, and Executive Director and CEO, Chinachem Group 4. Mr. Dennis Ho, Director & East Asia Regional Design Lead - Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, ARUP and Co-Chair Education and CPD Subcommittee, RIBA Hong Kong Chapter. 5. Mr. Anderson Lee, Founder, Index Architecture Limited and Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong 6. Ms. Shirley Surya, Curator, Design and Architecture, M+ 7. Prof. Hendrik Tieben, Director, School of Architecture in The Chinese University of Hong Kong 8. Mr. Simon Yu, Director of Zaha Hadid Architects
▎Moderators ▎ Mr. Michael Chan, Head of Academic Development, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) Mr. Henry Chan, Programme Leader of the Higher Diploma in Architectural Design Programme, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) |
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Language: |
English, simultaneous interpretation will NOT be provided. |
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Access: |
ZOOM Webinar |
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Watch Recording: |
Public Guided Tours
Guided Tours can be arranged for schools and community groups by advanced booking. Registration and enquiries: hkdi-gallery@vtc.edu.hk / +852 3928 2566
Visit Us
Exhibition Period
19.01 - 13.06.2022
(Closed on Tuesdays)
Opening Hours
10:00 - 20:00
Venue
HKDI Gallery, Hong Kong Design Institute
3 King Ling Road, Tseung Kwan O, NT
(MTR Tiu Keng Leng Station Exit A2)
Enquiries
hkdi-gallery@vtc.edu.hk / +852 3928 2566
*For everyone’s health and safety, capacity is limited, and an advance ticket is required for visitors.
Acknowledgement
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