@zahahadidarchitects

: Phaeno Science Center (@phaeno_wolfsburg) opened in 2005. . Great photo of the centre’s undercroft from @wearehevi . . . “Revolutionary is a word to be used as sparingly as possible; especially when it is applied to architecture. But Zaha Hadid Architects’ new science centre in Wolfsburg, an astonishing, exhilarating concrete and steel vortex of a building, is one of those very few constructions that fully justifies its use. She allows us to experience space in ways that never seemed possible before. The building does indeed turn architecture upside down, suggesting a new understanding of space that had previously only existed in the architect’s mind.” The Observer. . ZHA was commissioned to build the Phaeno following its 1997 design competition, collaborating with @akt_ii to create the centre’s innovative structure. Since its opening in 2005, the Phaeno has presented a fantastic programme of inspirational events and interactive exhibitions demonstrating the principles & powers of science. .

in - Dongdaemun Design Plaza - fantastic capture from @_ines.maria. ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Welcoming over 50 million visitors since opening in 2014, @DDP_Seoul hosts a fascinating program of exhibitions and events throughout the year. ・ DDP’s design revolves around Seoul’s ancient city wall and historical artefacts discovered on the site; establishing an engaging cultural centre and a new public park in the middle of the city with direct connections to its ancient past. ・ The first public project in Korea to employ 3D digital construction management and administration, DDP continues to innovate, creating new synergies with neighbouring communities as well as artists and designers from around the world. ・

・ to @AnnieLeibovitz ・ from @artworkslondon ・・・ ANNIE LEIBOVITZ Portraits of from the artist's 'Women' series. Featured in Liebovitz's beautiful book 'Portraits 2005-2016'.

: Guangzhou Opera House (2010). . @Guardian: “Sometimes, just sometimes, architecture makes you want to burst out into song. The new Guangzhou Opera House is one of the most remarkable buildings not just in China, but the whole world. A truly radical design that shapes and defines a new stretch of the city and boasts inspiring and unexpected public spaces... a virtuoso performance. The structural ebb and flow of this charismatic opera house are the end result of a long artistic adventure. A marriage of brilliant avant-garde architecture and true populism.” . Guangzhou Opera House has welcomed more than 4 million visitors to its performances since opening ten years ago. . Great photos by @virgilebertrand_hk_photo and @huftonandcrow . @GuangzhouOperaHouse

in Beijing has won ‘People’s Choice’ at the AZ Awards 2020 for buildings over 1,000 sq.m. Launched in 2011 by @AzureMagazine, the AZ Awards recognise excellence and innovation in design, showcasing the world’s best projects, products and ideas. . Great photo from @aaronshaw. . . . Selected by the public for this year's AZ Awards, Leeza SOHO tower for @SOHO_China is adjacent to the new Fengtai business district’s rail station at the intersection of five new lines currently under construction on Beijing’s Subway network, on a site that is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel. . Straddling this tunnel, the tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single facade. The space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating the world’s tallest atrium at 194m which rotates as the tower rises to realign the upper floors with Lize road to the north. . This rotation of the atrium intertwines Leeza SOHO’s two halves in a dynamic ‘pas de deux’. Acting as a public square for the new district and providing varying views due to its twisting, sculptural form, the tower creates a fantastic new civic space for Beijing that is directly connected to the city’s transport network. . A double-insulated, unitised glass curtain wall system steps the glazing units on each floor at an angle, providing narrow ventilating registers to draw outside air through operable cavities; creating extremely efficient environmental control for each floor. . Receiving LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council, Leeza SOHO’s energy management system monitors real-time environmental control and energy efficiency. The tower includes an insulating green roof with photovoltaic array; 2,680 bicycle parking spaces, with lockers, shower facilities and dedicated charging spaces. . .

Morpheus Hotel @CityOfDreamsMacau has won the award for best Asia Pacific Hotel Over 200 Rooms at the International Hotel & Property Awards 2020, voted by industry professionals as well as design et al readers, clients and customers. . Stunning photo of Morpheus’ lobby from @yoyosan . . . Morpheus was designed as a vertical extrusion of the site’s existing abandoned foundations for a condominium tower that did not progress; using this rectangular footprint to define a 40-storey building of two internal vertical circulation cores at podium and roof levels where the hotel’s many guest amenities were required. . Three horizontal vortices generate the voids through the central atrium and define the hotel’s spectacular interior public spaces. In-between these voids, a series of bridges create unique spaces for the restaurants, bars & lounges by renowned chefs. . Working with @Buro_Happold Engineering, Zaha Hadid Architects designed the building’s structure to optimise the hotel’s interiors. The world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton, its rich pattern of structural members at lower levels progresses upwards to a less dense grid of lighter members at its summit. . In 2018, @TIME Magazine listed Morpheus Hotel as one of the World’s Greatest Places based on key factors including quality, originality, innovation, sustainability and influence. Morpheus was also voted @ArchDaily’s Building of the Year’ (BOTY) in the hospitality category while @PopSci Magazine included the hotel in their list ‘Best of What New’. . Last year, Morpheus was named a winner of @NatGeo Magazine’s ‘Big Sleep Awards’ and also received the Prix Versailles for Central and Northeast Asia. . .

: Dominion Office Tower in opened 5 years ago this month. . Named one of Moscow’s most beautiful modern buildings, the Dominion was included in the 2016 list of the city’s best new projects. . Located in Moscow’s Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street, the Dominion is among the first of the new projects to be built for the growing creative and IT sectors in this primarily industrial and residential district in the southeast of the city. . Conceived as a series of vertically stacked plates off-set at each level, a central atrium rises through all levels to bring natural light into the centre of the building. Balconies and staircases project into the atrium and correspond to the displacement of Dominion’s outer envelope. . The atrium defines a three-dimensional shared space over many levels that enhances interaction within the building, encouraging collaboration between companies of different disciplines. . Photos: @huftonandcrow .

2 Murray Road in for Henderson Land replaces a multi-storey car park to create an urban oasis adjacent to Chater Garden between Central and Admiralty MTR stations. . Sheltering new civic plazas enveloped by nature, the 36-storey design reinterprets the structural forms and layering of a Bauhinia bud about to blossom. Known as the Hong Kong orchid tree, the ‘Bauhinia x blakeana’ was first propagated in the city’s botanic gardens above the Murray Road site and its flowering bud features on Hong Kong’s flag. . A high-tensile steel structure provides naturally lit, column-free, Grade A office space with a 5 metre floor-to-floor height giving maximum flexibility and views of the city. . Accommodating new patterns of working with enhanced workplace flexibility, the building’s smart management system creates a contactless pathway for all occupants from the street to their workstation, using a mobile phone, contactless card or biometric recognition to eliminate all contact with communal surfaces. . The tower’s Sky Garden is an outdoor recreational space with running track and an aquaponics planting network that acts as an effective biological air-purifying filter by consuming contaminants. The rooftop banqueting hall offers panoramic views of the city’s skyline. . The design has achieved LEED Platinum and WELL Platinum pre-certification together with the highest 3-Star rating of China’s Green Building Rating Program. . 4-ply, double-laminated, double-curved insulated glass facades are designed to withstand the region’s powerful summer typhoons. Air quality monitoring systems control natural ventilation which can be supplemented with dehumidification and filtration when required, as well as detect the degree of occupancy in any interior and automatically adjust indoor air temperature, humidity and fresh air volume - learning to accurately predict daily occupancy trends to increase efficiencies and reduce energy consumption. . Construction of the tower began last year with its procurement targeting embodied carbon reductions and the use of recycled materials. . Animation @cosmoscube

This week’s : Generali Tower in Milan. . Brilliant photo from @stefano.pea95 . . . Generali Tower is within @CityLifeMilano, the largest new civic space and public park in the city since Parco Sempione opened 130 years ago. . Located above the Tre Torri station of Milan’s metro system and aligned at ground level with three of the city’s primary axes that converge within CityLife, the 170m tower by Zaha Hadid Architects connects with its surrounding public piazzas and park; the curvilinear geometries of its podium defined by the perceived centripetal forces generated from the staggered intersection of these three city axes. . This vortex of centripetal forces at ground level is transferred vertically through the tower by realigning successive rhomboid-shaped floor plates to twist the tower about its vertical axis. This helical twist reduces incrementally with the height of each floor above street level, giving all floors a fractionally different relationship to the floors above and below. . As the tower rises offering broader views across Milan, the twist orientates the tower's higher floors to the primary southeast axis leading to Bramante’s 15th Century tribune of Santa Maria della Grazie. . Generali Tower received its LEED Platinum certification from the US Green Building Council earlier this year by implementing strategies that include: – more than 45% savings in indoor potable water usage. – 100% energy supply from renewables. – With its double facade system, more than 95% of regularly occupied spaces in the building enjoy good daylighting levels throughout the year. . The tower houses up to 3,900 employees to meet Generali’s continued growth as one of the world’s largest financial institutions. .

: Niederhafen River Promenade in is one of three projects by ZHA shortlisted for th AIA UK Chapter ‘Excellence in Design’ Awards. . Great photos by @_Piet_Niemann. . Established over 20 years ago, the @AIA.UK ‘Excellence in Design’ awards recognise work of the highest standards by architects, industrial designers, urban planners, landscape architects and interior designers working in Britain. . Transforming essential flood protection infrastructure into popular public space, the new Niederhafen River Promenade in Hamburg is integral to the modernisation and reinforcement of the city’s flood protection system. . In the aftermath of storm surge floods in February 1962 that caused 315 fatalities and destroyed the homes of 60,000 residents, between 1964 and 1968 Hamburg developed a barrier on the banks of the River Elbe at Niederhafen to protect the city against floods up to a height of 7.20m above sea level. . Modern hydrology and computer simulations have since forecast the city’s flooding characteristics with greater accuracy; calculating an increase in the barrier height was required to protect Hamburg from future winter storm surges and extreme high tides. . The new Niederhafen flood protection barrier incorporates the city’s riverside promenade providing panoramic views of the Elbe and its historic port, and reconnects its river promenade with the surrounding urban fabric; creating links with adjacent neighbourhoods. . Wide staircases resembling small amphitheatres are carved within the flood protection barrier at points where streets from the adjacent neighbourhoods meet the structure; giving passers-by at street level views of the people strolling along the promenade at the top of the barrier and views of the masts & superstructures of ships in the Elbe. Similar amphitheatres facing the river alternate with these city-facing stairs. Ramps also connect the river promenade with street level providing accessibility for all. .

Beijing Daxing International Airport is one of three projects by shortlisted for the @AIA.UK Chapter ‘Excellence in Design’ Awards. . Fantastic photo from @ericube23. . . . Beijing Daxing is 46km south of the city (20 mins by express train). Its 700,000m² passenger terminal includes a ground transportation centre offering direct connections with the national high-speed rail network and local train services. . Echoing principles within traditional Chinese architecture that organise interconnected spaces around a central courtyard, the design guides all passengers seamlessly through the relevant departure, arrival or transfer zones towards the courtyard at its centre. . 6 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 central court. Linear skylights provide an intuitive system of navigation throughout the building, guiding passengers to and from their departure gates. . The compact radial design allows a maximum number of aircraft to be parked directly at the terminal with minimum distances from the centre of the building, providing exceptional convenience for passengers and flexibility in operations. . 5 aircraft piers radiate from the terminal’s main central court where all passenger services & amenities are located, enabling passengers to walk the short distances from check-in to all gates in under 8 minutes. . Incorporating 10MW of photovoltaic power generation, centralised heating with waste heat recovery and one of the world’s largest composite ground-source heat pump systems, the airport implements rainwater collection and a water management network with natural storage, natural permeation and natural purification of up to 2.8 million cubic meters of water in new wetlands, lakes and streams. .

in is one of three projects by shortlisted for the @AIA.UK Chapter ‘Excellence in Design’ Awards. . Brilliant photo from @abeastinside. . . . Established over 20 years ago, the awards recognise work of the highest standards by architects, industrial designers, urban planners, landscape architects and interior designers working in Britain. . Adjacent to the new Fengtai business district’s rail station at the intersection of five new lines currently under construction on Beijing’s Subway network, Leeza SOHO’s site is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel. . Straddling this tunnel, the tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single facade. The space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating the world’s tallest atrium at 194m which rotates as the tower rises to realign the upper floors with Lize road to the north. . This rotation of the atrium intertwines Leeza SOHO’s two halves in a dynamic ‘pas de deux’. Acting as a public square for the new district and providing varying views due to its twisting, sculptural form, the tower creates a fantastic new civic space for Beijing that is directly connected to the city’s transport network. . A double-insulated, unitised glass curtain wall system steps the glazing units on each floor at an angle, providing narrow ventilating registers to draw outside air through operable cavities; creating extremely efficient environmental control for each floor. . Receiving LEED Gold certification, Leeza SOHO’s energy management system monitors real-time environmental control and energy efficiency. The tower includes an insulating green roof with photovoltaic array; 2,680 bicycle parking spaces, with lockers, shower facilities and dedicated charging spaces. . @SOHO_China