We’re gaga over these renderings of Zaha Hadid’s proposed Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi. We haven’t heard much about how green the building will be, but we’re excited to see more and more star architects inspired by natural and organic forms (check out the leaf-like windows!). The Performing Arts Center will be part of a multi-billion dollar cultural district with other buildings by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Tadao Ando. In her own words, Ms. Hadid describes the structure as a “biological analogy” whose primary components (branches, stems, fruits, and leaves) are then “transformed from these abstract diagrams into architectonic design.” We can only hope that such poetic biomimicry will be translated into green functions, materials, and technologies as well.
Via Dezeen via Tropolism
I’m in love with zaha hadid art I tried to talk to her for 15 years but I could’t I wich one day I can do it
Oh, God of architecture. What on earth have you done?! This eats the Norwegian Opera to breakfast. The lot is nice too. In UAE (United Arabic Emirates) such things i made every year, in Norway… They’ve just started make 3 houses which is in a modern style, but still outdated compared to what many others does, especially this!
Kori is a bum, but very nice building
Hadid’s paintings and drawings have always been an important testing field, and a medium for the exploration of her design
its amazing…!!!
there is still hope…that we will be freed from the dreadful and uninspiring box-like houses with 90 degrees angles and straight lines everywhere.
now we can meet the next generation of buildings,fantastic!
wonderful architect! amazing woman!
what i like: the space flows, structure integrated, harmony in composition, guts and challenge of the regulations.
what i dislike: lack of contextual relations, but that’s from the suprematists first thinking – what we do is for sure new.,; no limits for costs, and for that reason nobody would ever try to do smth alike, a female trying to be a man, agresivity and too much money and so on.
anyway, it’s better than the archt. Dubai shit.
Form follow function or cart befor the horse? Is she trying to play gods and copying nature in a litteral sense?
Nature is not static. Evolution form takes place through secltion of most appropriate functions and form follows.
Taking a form from nature and juxtaposing brief requirement to fit the sapce and expecting a pat on the back for being an orioginal thinker – come again Zaha. You still have a long way to go.
What will be your next inspiration – brain laid out as a form on the table and being travessed by long winding entrances? and buiding in large expanses of glass off course – do you have the next visual now? Who cares about green issues, solar gains, acoustic incompetencies, H&S hazzards and lastly money of course. As long as your client carries perto dollars and does not comprehend your asymmetrical thinking – lets call it revolutionary architecture.
I suspect people like Mies, Gropius, Corbusier and even Lloyds of the bygone age will be turning in their grave at the your post mortum of Architecture.
dynamic, futuristic, breathtaking… interpretation of the organic analogy is amazing – abstract yet so harmonious n balanced. the form is fluid n flambouyant as t shud b, yet not ‘snobish’. the delicate slope with which d building rises is invitin n directional. the window graphic is so cool. the lady definitely has sum style n guts to design such an art piece.
as for the funtionality, acoustics n energy issues, she mite’ve given ‘em due consideration is wat i believe. the appreciation is for cumin up wid innovative audi design which flows wid d rest of d form. as a concept tis beautiful!
wat stil hurts ma eye n sores ma mind is its ill response to the context – the culture, climate n urban scenario of abu dhabi.. truely as already mentiond by else1, dis buildin cud b newhere in ne other part of the world.. it doesnt have roots here..
another thing i cant appreciate in all her later works is d scale n volume – seem imposing n intimidatin..
dynamic, futuristic, breathtakin… interpretation of the organic analogy is amazing – astract, yet harmonious n balanced! d form is fluid. its flamboynt as supposed to b n yet not ‘snobbish’. the delicate slope with which it rises is inviting n directional. the window graphic is so cool. the lady definitely has sum style n guts to design dis piece of work.
as for its functionality n energy issues, she might’ve considered ‘em is wat i believe.
wat stil hurts ma eye n sores ma mind is its ill-response to d context in terms of d culture, climate n urban surroundin of abu dhabi. another thing i cannt appreciate in almost al her later works is d scale n d volumes which get radical n imposin.
Honestly, who cares what it looks like if it is built by slave laborers?
I think Zaha has the guts to create new way of auditorium design…from traditional auditorium all over the world
I agree with annie that the designers must have thought about the acoustic and glare and heat gain thing…
just wonder what are they suppose to be??
anyone have any ideas?
should we coat something on the glass skin for acoustic reason ?
like..attach transparent cloth
Once again an architect, a design is disconnected from the hand, from the act of placing pen to paper. I use CAD, it is very useful for CD’s. Not so much for design.
Did she draw this?Did she use playdough? Did she just skip it all and use some bizarre version of photoshop? The level of commitment one associates with the design of any building requires pen,paper and lots of tracing paper.
An artist who cannot draw the human figure is not truly an artist.
her ideas are outta the box….vry dynamic n futuristic….of course it’ll be functional like all the other decon structures
she has created…ppl shlould know she is a very promising architect of tomorrow…so wouldn’t she have thought about all the problems she’ll face with the acoustics,glare and so forth???give it a break the lady knows what she s doing…ppl should try to think differently than just the usual geometric shapes….i feel she is an inspiration to younger architects in the making….
lovely building ,i hope it takes inti consideration the peoples culture?
HOW I CAN BUY THE BOOKS FOR THE FANTASTIC ARCHITUCTURE ?
To Architects world wide
This message goes to all those empty soul that work crazy on those PC’s, modelling like slaves to materialize these
Concrete Masses, dreaming that one day they will be in the so desired spotlight. Zaha Hadid has proved to be one of the greatest artistic Masterminds of 21st century, but I believe architecture is all about teamwork, so it’s time to give credit to the people behind the curtain. Cheers!
she is dynamic,the way she creats the space,volume,its cool,but will tell more only after visiting her buildings.
I think zaha hadid’s design is very ambitious and brave , not only beacuse it is in the middle east , were regulations could be harsh , but because the design itself breaks the usual boundary of architecture,. Althought the form of the design is very unusual , it is still in my opinion beautiful. i will contradict myself and say that ‘form does not follow function in this insctance’ because if i was a pedestrain walking past the building , i wouldnt know what to think it was. Although Zaha Hadid’s designs are world renouned, i think they consentrate on how good the building will look rather than how good its’ going to fulfill its function .
Acoustically, I think there is more promise than many of the other commenters indicate. It’s a bit “trendy” (everyone wants to design a wraparound “vineyard” hall ever since Disney opened) but there’s a lot of volume to work with and the seats have a good relationship to the stage. Yes, yes, yes of course there is a ton to be done to actually make it “work” acoustically–gotta get something over the stage to help project sound evenly, for one–but for an initial design concept it’s not bad.
The peril I see is that it is too easy to make a high-quality rendering… people mistake a concept sketch (which this is) for a finished design. Still two years worth of design work before it’s ready to build.
More starchitectural dreck. Look what I can do! I can make a building look like a Rorscharch Test…or is it a dragonfly smashed on your windshield? It is devoid of any contextual response…..This building could be in Poughkeepsie or Moscw. It is unethical on many levels. Why do we celebrate this show of one upmanship or is it upwomanship?
This building is about as organic as a piece of carved styrofoam.
The structure looks alot more Art Nouveau with a modern twist dont you think so..Its like modern twist with an old idea..
Amazingly futuristic. Can’t wait to see the end result and how it much differs from (or stays true to) the original concept.
SO AT WHAT POINT DOES THIS “THING” TAKE OFF AND FLY INTO OUTER SPACE… ANYONE?
Very pretty – looks just like that vacation hot spot from the movie 5th Element. The only thing missing is the blue skinned chanteuse.
Humor aside, I think it would be lovely and even moreso if the green, accoustic, sight line, etc factors can be addressed. Music is augmented by the surroundings in which it is played so the accoustics must be right.
Another surrealist image presented by Zaha….We expected that the virtual reality will be our new environment in the next future..
it’s easy to be a critic. Yes, acoustics, glare, etc are important considerations, but these renderings are undeniably dynamic and exciting.
I think this structure is breathtaking. Regardless of what costs and obstacles that need to be overcome, such as accoustics, energy usage, glare, etc. (which I agree are vitally important), I would pay big money to sit and view a performance in this building. The view is phenomenal. The whole experience would be so surreal. And to have that kind of experience… it’s worth the money.
Whatever happened to “form follows function?” The function of the building must be the highest priority. This lovely structure doesn’t appear to be functional for its intended use, as has been so aptly pointed out by many posts. Does that matter to anyone? Shouldn’t that matter to everyone? No matter how magnificent a structure may look, it is a monstrosity and a travesty if it cannot perform its duty. It would be an incredible waste of time, money, energy, land and creativity if that should happen. Zaha needs to go “back to the drawing board” with conscience and answer some of the objections raised in these blogs.
“BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
FUNCTIONALITY IS IN THE MIND OF THE USER, IF HE CAN”
EDWIN D’V
Its magnificant, in all possible ways. If this were to be built, it would give me hope for the future of mankind
There is some really interesting architecture going on in Abu Dahbi now, but I think it is interesting that many architects aren’t taking traditional arabic architectural design into consideration. It seems a huge leap, and I wonder how the local people like this? Maybe they love it? Just curious….. Or is it not being designed for people who actually live in that country?
Also am concerned about the heat- all those windows in that climate?!
This is an esoteric exercise…clearly. From an acoustic point of view, and from a practical facilities maintenance point of view, this thing is a disaster. The best architects of all time didn’t make great buildings, they created spaces that were in fact incredible experiences. This one LOOKS like it could be an incredible experience, but most likely it won’t sound like one. Ouch.
If her buildings are anything like her website. . . ouch
absolutely phenomenal !
I like this.
cool.
Emily, inhabitat etc, there is a large point being overlooked here, one that really has nothing to do with energy efficiency and the like. I encourage you to follow the link posted below. The critical dialogue there may illuminate some of the frustration directed at this whimsical post.
http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=52018_0_24_0_C
Bests,
Aaron
1. How is the sun going to travel across the inside? Which seats are going to have very upset people?
2. What planning went into the seating arrangement? Do people really want to be sitting behind a band or a play? Couldn’t she come up with a better use of space? Look at all the empty space (unusable but still requiring a/c).
3. What are the acoustics going to be like? Will natural sound carry, will it bleed through the amplified sound system, will some areas end up much louder than others? Will there be dead areas where you can’t hear anything?
I’ll take usability over design, unless we’re just sticking with the renderings.
I’m glad this is inspiring such a heated debate. By posting these renderings we were hoping to incite such a conversation. To quell some of the opposition, however, I’d like to point out that just by posting the renderings, we are in no way putting it out there as a supremely green building, but rather noting that the FORM is inspired by organic forms, and that we HOPE this translates into some green building technologies, materials, etc. Unfortunately there is not a ton of information out there on this project yet, so we’ll keep you posted.
Regardlezz of what Zaha’z building lookz like [az that is beside the point] zhe weavez an amazing concept of zpace. Hard to compair to FLW though az FLW and Zaha have radically different zpatial conceptz.
Zaha is the next Frank!
dumb as usual. what is the fundamental advantage of blobs?
the space is not good, it’s just ‘different’ at any cost – literally.
Sightlines and Acoustics anybody?
Absolutely Breathtaking!
Heat Gain- it will be an energy pig
Glare and Acoustics- it’ll sound like crap but you won’t be able to see the performers anyway.
A disaster in the making but that never stopped Queen Starchitect from imperiously sneering at her critics as philistine insects. All hail the empress- now go find her something to wear.
True, we dont know the green-worth of this building……what with air-conditioning, what with acoustics, what with reclamation of land(if any)..we just dont know…..but full marks for being flambuoyant…..rest the time only will tell…
Pseudo organic shapes do not an organic building make. The telling is in the Wholeness of the design, which from where I stand, is barely perceivable. Sustainable design must be whole… to quote Christopher Alexander…“…the beauty of a building, its life, and its capacity to support life all come from the fact that it is working as a whole. A view of the building as a whole means that we see it as part of an extended and undivided continuum.” I don’t think this building passes this critical test.
“This woman is the Frank Lloyd Wright of today.”
E.J. Bisch, could you please elaborate on this comment? There is no clear relationship between the two in their approach and the ideas are not ground breaking or wildly original. They are nice pieces of art.
If you mean she is arrogant like the stories of FLW portray him as being, then you would be correct in making this assumption.
p.s. there are other ‘famous’ architects from the past other than FLW. Also, I don’t think you have the mindset or patients to understand a box as being more than just “blah” so please don’t comment on something you know nothing about.
Who cares if it’s organic looking? I would be much more impressed if they used their fancy modeling software to make it actually ORGANIC, as opposed to yet another stagnant architectural drain on fossil fuels.
What about the heat gain and glare that would be created from so much glass?
you people are weird!
ive never people jizz so much when talking about Zaha.
i mean the design is ok. but “Art Nouveau… “Frank LLoyd Wright of today”…
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!!!
i mean they are renderings. Zaha probably didnt even touch the design, its like any geek who is into architecture can make something that looks like this…
if she can get it built then that may be remarkable, except for the fact that it is in abu dhabi and eveything there hype.
imperialism is imperialism, boxy or blobby.
beautiful! I love the design.
This woman is the Frank Lloyd Wright of today. What an amazing structure. A complete departure from box building blahs.
Hadid’s buildings are beautiful. Impossible to sit on her sofas, though.
Ms Hadid’s design is so very beautiful, as are all her designs. I’m concerned that it will not be as ‘beautiful’ and successful in fulfilling it’s intended use, however. The problem is large expanses of glass. This is a nightmare scenario acoustically. Glass is a severely sound reflective material. This is why large amounts of it are NEVER used in music performing spaces or theaters. Oftentimes, in spite of the sound absorbtion aspects of humans sitting in plush seating… concert halls have acoustic baffling on the walls and ceiling. It’s also worth noting that these sound baffle treatments are added after the halls have been built; because all the mathematical projections rendered and thereafter factored into these designs, were not able to accurately predict the final reality of the sonic response of these Concert Halls/performance spaces before they were built. (Strange but True !) Ms Hadid’s design does not seem to leave room for this kind of achitectural ‘tuning’ of the room after it is constructed. And quite frankly, I find this a shocking oversight for such a spectacular and world renowned architect as herself !
But then again, it was not beyond another historic and world renowned architect, such as I.M.Pei, to design the Javitts Convention Center in New York City… so that its total expanse of glass could NOT be cleaned from the inside ! I mean… isn’t there someone who kind of checks on the wild creativity of such designs and their designers ?
And… speaking of GLASS… how is the glass of Ms Hadids ‘Performing Arts Centre in Dubai’ going to be cleaned !?!?
The retourn of “Art Nouveau” ?
I hope it is
Gorgeous. Just lovely.
I totally agree, but I think you’ll find that insects and plants share a lot of common looks/lines/etc. The veins in a leaf are strikingly similar to the wings of a fly. I almost prefer that it can go back and forth… it can be both or neither.
I’d say the windows look more like the wings of an insect than a leaf. Given that they follow a seemingly less ordered arrangement. A dragonfly was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the building.