Zaha Hadid’s architecture in 8 key works

Built after the fire that destroyed the original industrial facilty, the fire station at the Vitra Campus is Zaha Hadid's first actually completed project and the turning point in her design career. Later used as an exhibition space, the building is considered a deconstructivist manifesto: the exposed reinforced concrete volume resembles a sculpture embedded in the ground, with its complex and intersecting geometric forms, sharp edges, and sloping surfaces that enhance the dynamic and striking character of the composition.

The 842-metre-long bridge spanning the Maqtah Canal, connecting the island of Abu Dhabi with the mainland, is not only a strategic urban infrastructure for vehicular access to the capital of the UAE but a clearly recognisable landmark in the area. The two road levels, each with four lanes, are supported by an entirely pre-stressed concrete structure with a fluid silhouette reminiscent of desert dunes. The dramatic night lighting accentuates the sculptural character of the construction.

The museum in the Flaminio district, Stirling Prize for Architecture 2010, is a massive multifunctional building in reinforced concrete and glass, articulated in a complex sequence of spaces: on the ground floor, the full-height hall, bookshop, cafeteria, auditorium, research laboratories and galleries for temporary exhibitions and photography and graphics collections; on the upper floors, wide exhibition halls connected by intertwining paths. Curved walls, sloping floors, suspended staircases and walkways, and flashes of light cutting through the façade and the skylights shape an "energising" environment that subverts the constraints of spatial orthogonality.

Located in a rural area north of Naples, the Napoli Afragola high-speed railway station, made of reinforced concrete, clad with Corian, steelwork and glazed panels, is an imposing bridge-building that spans the tracks, with a length of about 400 metres and a width of about 44 metres, in order to overcome the barrier created by the existing railway line and provide a second mobility hub, in addition to the Napoli Centrale station. The complex, with its geometry springing from the very transit flows it generates, houses ticket offices and passenger services on the first level, and commercial services on the third and fourth levels. Solar panels integrated in the canopy roof, combined ventilation and integrated cooling and heating systems allow the annual energy demand to be minimised.

The centre, designed to become the main building for the nation's cultural programmes, breaks the links with the rigid, often monumental Soviet architecture widespread in Baku. The design establishes an uninterrupted relationship between the interior and the public square outside, reconnecting the building to the city through a sequence of terraced public spaces dedicated to the collective celebration of contemporary and traditional Azerbaijani culture. The volume enlivened by intricate undulations, bifurcations, folds and inflections echoes the figurative complexity of calligraphic and ornamental patterns in the Arab tradition. The lighting plays a decisive role in the composition, differentiating the perception of the building from day to night: during the day, the volume reflects the light differently according to the hour and the point of view; at night, it is gradually transformed by the interplay of interior and exterior lighting.

As the Serpentine Gallery’s first permanent building (and Zaha Hadid’s first in the heart of London), the intervention located in Kensington Gardens, strongly debated for its disruptive impact on the context, is composed of two distinct intertwined parts: a 19th-century brick building that served as a gunpowder store (The Magazine), renovated by the studio as an exhibition space, and an adjacent new tensile structure housing the communal spaces. In the extension's articulated contours, integrated by a continuous fibreglass membrane seemingly animated with a life of its own, lies Zaha Hadid's unmistakable signature, governing complexity as a response to regulatory, structural stability and energy requirements. 

The infrastructure is a masterpiece of sustainable engineering solutions. Covering an area of 700,000 square metres and built in just five years, the complex is characterised by its starfish-shaped roof, which hooks onto the ground above the vast central hall and easily directs transit flows thanks to its radial configuration. Structural spans of up to 100 m allow for large, free and flexible spaces. Numerous design solutions make the work energy efficient, reducing its impact on the landscape: from the photovoltaic panels on the roof, to the central heating system capable of recovering waste heat, to a rainwater collection system.

Located in the Business Bay district not far from the Burj Khalifa, The Opus is one of the latest works to have been fully supervised by Zaha Hadid in its design. The 93 metre high complex houses the luxury hotel ME Dubai, with offices on the central floors and flats on the upper floors with services provided directly by the hotel, as well as restaurants and bars. The complex is characterised by two separate towers connected at the base by a four-storey atrium and at the top by a bridge, suggesting the silhouette of a cube hollowed out in the centre by an eight-storey void, like a huge ice cube melting from the inside due to the heat. Reflective glass surfaces, in neutral tones on the outer façades and blue in the cavity, create different effects during the day. Zaha Hadid also designed the interior and furniture with a clearly recognisable style for the common areas, the 74 rooms and 19 suites.