Star architect Zaha Hadid died of a heart attack on March 31st, the world lost an outstanding architect and artist.
The works of Zaha Hadid are well known for their futuristic looking, a noted feature of her buildings is that they almost entirely composed of curves, straight lines can be hardly found, and there are many ambitious cantilevers on these buildings, this is another noted feature of her works, for which the difficulty and costs will be greatly increased.
Zaha Hadid used to say that her idea is not to have any 90 degree angles. By that way the buildings may look more attractive, but this will obviously result in an significant waste of space and reduce the utilization of buildings. An example is US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, designed by the architect firm of IM Pei, the tower is the landmark of the city as it has an iconic appearance, but its occupancy rate is lower than other buildings in the city for its circular shape, which wastes much space.
For the same reason there’s still no a single building designed by Zaha Hadid built in United Kingdom, the home country of Zaha Hadid. These countries are generally conservative, they do not want to try those peculiar and weird design. Her style has been criticized as sacrificing the costs to achieve the vision in her child-like mind.
But some countries like China are in favor of her works, the developers and officials in these countries are not pursuing practicability but the prestige, they want to demonstrate their rapid growing economy by building some fancy towers, such as CCTV Headquarters by Ole Scheeren.
Though Zaha Hadid’s works are widespread in many countries, a large percent of her master works are located in China, including the only completed supertall skyscraper designed by her.
The majority of her works are low-rise buildings such as Museums, Stadiums and Bridges, but also no lack of skyscrapers,
Here we list some skyscrapers designed by Zaha Hadid, not all of them have come true, mainly due to the high costs or construction difficulties.
Completed skyscrapers designed by Zaha Hadid:
1. Nanjing Youth Olympic Center Tower A
Height: 314 meters-Tower A; 249 meters-Tower B
Floor count: 68; 58
City: Nanjing
Built year: 2015
Nanjing Youth Olympic Center Tower A is the only completed supertall skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid. The shape of tower was inspired by sailing ships, but not same as sailing ships, it’s more like a modern of futuristic sailing ship.
These two skyscraper towers are so complex and unique that the difficulties of construction even surpass Bird’s Nest Stadium, a very complicated structure in Beijing, however they had been built successfully in 2015, becoming a new futuristic addition to the skyline of Nanjing.
2. Wangjing SOHO
Height: 200 meters
City: Beijing
Built year: 2014
Wangjing SOHO is a building complex comprising 3 buildings with the tallest one being 200 meters tall. The complex is relatively close to Beijing Capital International Airport, it’s possibly the first distinct building that seen by visitors when they come to the city, it’s regard as the image project of Beijing.
The curtain wall of Wangjing SOHO is very similar with Galaxy SOHO, another poject designed by Zaha Hadid in the same city, but the buildings of Wangjing SOHO are much taller, and by contrast with oval shape of Galaxy SOHO, the buildings of Wangjing SOHO are squashed and crooked, making them look dancing.
Some people describe them as sailing ships, but the developer of the project once said the design takes inspiration from Koi Carp, a mascot fish in traditional Chinese culture.
Ongoing skyscraper projects designed by Zaha Hadid:
1. 666 5th Avenue
Height: 427 meters
City: New York City
No renderings or details of this building have been released by the firm of Zaha Hadid, but they will keep working on the design after she died.
Update: On March 22nd 2017, the plan of 666 5th Avenue was finally unveiled by Zaha Hadid Architects, a high quality rendering of the tower was released along with it.
It is said that Zaha Hadid had completed the design of this tower before her death.
2. 1000 museum
Height: 210 meters
Floor count: 62
City: Miami
This tower is located in Miami, United States, the tower is currently under construction and set to be topped out in 2017, a noted feature of the tower is those curved exoskeletons on the façades of the structure, these exoskeletons are replacing pillars and bearing walls inside the building to support the building, and without the pillars and bearing walls the inner space is maximized, result in a more spacious floor area.
A supertall skyscraper called Tower Verre in New York is also designed with exoskeletons, but not curved like on this one.
3. 582-606 Collins Street
Floor count: 54
City: Melbourne
This is a mix used building which contains residences, offices and retail spaces, the shape of the building looks like a few of stacked vases, supported by streamlined colonnades. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid in cooperation with a local architecture firm in Melbourne. The concept of stacked chunks is aimed to change the monotonous style of vertical buildings, making the building and streetscape more coherent.
Never built skyscraper projects by Zaha Hadid:
Some of Zaha Hadid’s works are too complicated and surreal, giving rise to higher difficulties of the construction and also increase the costs,
Being suspended or cancelled are natural and reasonable.
1. Signature Towers
Height: 350 meters; 305 meters; 250 meters
Floor count: 79; 65; 52
City: Dubai
Signature Towers was a complex of three skyscrapers proposed in Dubai, two of them are supertalls, the towers were formerly called dancing towers for their shapes seem like dancing, the proposal was first unveiled to the public in June 2006 in Guggenheim Museum, and in 2007 the developer Dubai Properties did soil testing at the site of the project. But soon after that the financial crisis broke out, the project forced to be suspended, since then the project never restart.
2. 425 Park Avenue
Height: 272 meters
City: New York City
Estimated built year: 2020
This building is an office tower at Park Avenue in Midtown of New York. The tower seems has no different from other towers if looking at its upper portion, which composed of straight lines, the highlights is at the lower part, still are those symbolized curves, which maybe pleasing to the viewers, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, tenants don’t want those slinky curves but the practicability, the opinions of tenants are the key factor for the design to be chosen, so the design was abandoned by the developer, instead they chose another design by Norman Foster as the final design. And some people also point out that the appearance of the tower looks not quite fit with the surrounding buildings in New York.
3. Lilium Tower
Height: 257 meters
City: Warsaw
This is another cancelled skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid, if it got built, it had become the tallest building in Warsaw.
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