Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre

Zaha Hadid ArchitectsStructural - Iconic

CASE STUDY B.Arch III Spring Semester 2012-13

Aniruddh Jain 10110006Jha Ashutosh 10110025Kumar Snehansu 10110029

Project Details

• Architect : Zaha Hadid

• Location : Baku, Azerbaijan

• Client :: Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic

of Azerbaijan

• Construction Started : 2007

• Construction Completed : May 10, 2012

• Building Area : 57,519 sqm

• Site Area : 111,292 sqm

• Footprint : 15,514 sqm

Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku

• Bad(wind) + kube (to pound)= strong winds. City is renowned for fierce snowstorms and winds.

• Temperature range - 2°C -30°C

• Max wind speed- 144 kmph.

• Important tourist spot.

• Scientific, cultural and industrial centre of Azerbaijan.

• Backed by oil reserves worth nearly half a trillion dollars, Baku is attempting to reinvent the country's reputation by rebuilding the entire city.

• Earthquake-prone area.

...Architecture

• Wildly varying architecture - Old City core to modern buildings.

• Buildings with all-glass shells have appeared around the city, extreme engineering developed, maze of narrow alleys and ancient buildings.

• The Old City of Baku - Walled City of Baku -ancient Baku settlement.

• Lack of a green belt - economic activity.

• Vibrant nightlife.

The contemporary buildings

Surroundings and topography

Project Premise

• Type– mixed use.

• Users—local and international

• Site analysis— surrounding contains structures still in construction, development.

• Timing of use- all times of day, all seasons.

• purpose— culture center featuring a conference hall, library, and museum.

Evening view

Daytime view

Contrast from Surroundings

Zaha Hadid

• Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004

• 31 October 1950, in Baghdad, Iraq.

• Mathematics from the American University of Beirut

• Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

• Worked for her former professors, Koolhaas and Zenghelis.

Criticism on Zaha Hadid

• Too much design not enough utility

• No utility

• Arbid

• I can make it too!

How are these forms made?

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Columns too big!

• Reflecting the topography of the site, the HeydarAliyev Cultural Center rises from the landscape, folding on a single, continuous surface to form the building's revolutionary geometric shape. To blur the boundary between building and ground, engineers were tasked with assembling more than 9 acres of curved steel segments. Flowing in all directions, this roof forms the building's ceilings, walls and stairs, making it one of the most complex structures ever attempted.

Basic framework

One Single Roof!

• 970,000-square-foot complex will house a 1,200-seat concert hall, national museum and library all under one roof — creating a structure unlike anything the world has ever seen. Defined by a 243-foot-tall continuously folding structure, the building's seamless curves will flow in one solid surface to form the floors, ceiling and surrounding landscape, where exterior walls blend — and then disappear altogether — into the city's outdoor cultural plaza.

Interiors-roofing

The cultural center's main hall is designed to accommodate a wide variety of events, from cultural performances to keynote speeches.

Most Advanced Acoustics

To meet this challenge, architects clad the 226,000-square-foot room's interior with rotating panels to modify the acoustical character of the space. This unique design allows the room to transform seamlessly from opera hall to convention center

Super Cladding

• Under these harsh conditions, typical roof tiling would blow right off the building. To deal with these extremes, engineers are cladding the cultural center with double-layered panels made of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP for short) — a high-tech, lightweight material endowed with exceptional strength. Each panel is formed to match a unique position along the constantly curving roof and then firmly secured to each neighboring panel. The end result: a singular skin that wraps the entire building and is strong enough to withstand even hurricane-force winds.

Structural Elements

• The main structure of the Heydar AliyevCultural Centre is a mix of reinforced concrete, steel frame structures, and composite beams and decks. The space frame is composed of a special steel tube-and-nodes system.

Earthquake

• Earthquakes are one of the biggest threats to construction in Baku.• Each building must be reinforced by massive 150-foot-long concrete

piles buried below the Earth's surface. Withstand an earthquake measuring up to magnitude 7.0

• Its inward curl is formed into stairways and ramps that connect the lower floors to mezzanine levels; other circulation paths also emanate from the curves of the building envelope. An elevated bridge connects the library to the conference hall.

• It was necessary to construct a building that could seal out the elements and bear high wind and seismic loads without relying on interior support columns (which would have impeded the flow of space). Ultimately, a system was devised that utilized a space frame as its main structural element; the cladding is a curtain wall system comprised of various specially fabricated panels.

Pollution : most polluted city

• The structure has an easy-to-clean external cladding materials because of the heavy air pollution… There are oil refineries and such nearby, and the cladding is white. That's how glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) came up, which is dirt-repellent itself.

Critiques of other architects

• “It is difficult in general to build something that extraordinary in a remote country where even very basic tools must be imported sometimes.” Thomas Winterstetter, Werner Sobek(façade designer)

• The only direction for Hadid is to produce progressively more and more wavey buildings. But the question is when to stop before it gets just too silly?

• Skateboarder's paradise.

Our Analysis

-Thank you