Zaha Hadid

Examining 4 Important Works by a Renowned Architect

The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), South Korea DDP, is designed as a cultural centre in the heart of Dongdaemun, a historic district of Seoul now known for 24-hour shopping and cafes. DDP is an architectural landscape revolving around ancient walls and cultural artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations before the DDP's construction. These historical features form the central element of DDP's composition; park, plaza and city brought together. The design is a very special result of the way in which context, local culture, programmed requirements and innovative engineering come together to create an entirely new civic space for the city, uniting architecture, city and landscape in both form and spatial experience. DDP Park serves as a place for rest, leisure and refuge, functioning as a new green oasis within Dongdaemun's dense urban environment. The design seamlessly integrates the park with the plaza, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape. Openings in the park's surface provide visitors with glimpses into the innovative design world below, making DDP an important link in the city's contemporary culture, between emerging nature and history. The 30,000 square metre park reinterprets spatial concepts from traditional Korean garden design; layering, horizontality, blurring the relationship between interior and exterior - not bearing a single feature that dominates perspective.

This approach is further informed by historical local painting traditions that depict the unchanging aspects of nature's visual qualities. Jockey Club Innovation Tower (JCIT), Hong Kong

The Jockey Club Innovation Tower (JCIT), Hong Kong is home to the Design School of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation. The 15-storey building houses more than 1,800 students and staff, with 15,000 sq m of design studios, laboratories and workshops, exhibition areas, multipurpose classrooms, conference hall and common areas for design education and innovation facilities. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus has developed its urban fabric over more than 50 years; many of the university's faculties are housed in visually coherent but highly diverse buildings. JCIT creates a new urban space enriching the diversity of university life and enriching the dynamism of a forward-looking institution. JCIT is located on a narrow, irregular site at the northeast end of the university campus (bounded by the football field to the south of the university and the Chatham Road / Kowloon Corridor highway intersection to the north) and connects to the heart of the campus. The tower design links various programmes within the Design School to promote a multidisciplinary environment; like the creation of a collective research culture where many contributions and innovations will feed into each other. Students, staff and visitors spend time across 15 tiers of studios, workshop spaces, laboratories, exhibition and event spaces within the school. Interior glazing and voids bring transparency and connection, while circulation routes and common areas are arranged to encourage interaction between many learning clusters and design disciplines.

Eli and Edythe Museum of Art, USA

The building consists of various materials such as steel and concrete, stainless steel and glass facade. It reflects and develops numerous flows and visual relationships that characterise the encompassing geography; the historical centre layers these associations. A building was developed where progressions change and transform as time advances - yet content remains curious while being entirely curious. Reasoned by Michigan State University, it is influenced by the progression of developments along and across the north edge. Along the important road life on the north side of Grand River Street and reasoned by the college on the south side, the unforgettable heart, some of which are part of the existing road, shapes a system of streets and visual connections, while others are inadequacies between roads, city and city. This extremely orderly interface between the city's rationale and itself collects a primary layer along Grand River Street in the east-west direction, along the main street going to East Lansing, and along ground entrance roads in the east and west directions on a site. The building succeeds in this diversity by propagating and dissolving visual relationships, creating a 'city cap' that brings individuals together and arranges different routes within and around the site. The open exhibition hall presents a sharp, directionally oriented body containing directed pellets that reflect the topographic and flow characteristics of the encompassing scene.

The outer skin mirrors these distinctive and introductory characteristics - giving the entrance a completely different appearance, creating incredible interest, but never revealing matter. This open character underscores the exhibition hall's capacity as a group's social place. London Aquatics Centre, United Kingdom

A concept that creates areas in sympathy with Olympic Park's river views and is inspired by the fluid geometry of flowing water. A undulating roof sweeps from the ground as a wave surrounding the centre's pools with the movement of integration. The London Aquatics Centre was designed to host the London 2012 Olympic Games; it also offers optimal size and capacity for use in traditional fashion outside the event. The design is primarily directed at main public space areas overlapping in Olympic Park and Stratford City planning, notably the east-west connection of Stratford City Bridge and the continuation of the Olympic Park area beside the canal. LAC is planned on a rectangular axis perpendicular to Stratford Town Bridge, where three pools are arranged. The training pool is located beneath the bridge, while the competition and diving pools are in a large volumetric pool hall. The overall strategy is to frame a platform by enclosing the floor of the pool hall and connecting it to the bridge. This podium element, which appears to be fully assimilated with the bridge and landscape, allows us to differentiate and diversify cellular programming elements in a single architectural volume. The podium creates steps from beneath the bridge around the pool corridor toward the canal at the lower side level. The pool hall, above podium level, is expressed with a broad roof extending on the same axis as the pools; the format of its form is shaped by sight lines for spectators in Olympic mode. The double curvature geometry creates a structure composed of parabolic arches providing the unique features of the roof.