Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre

Zaha Hadid Architects

Structural - Iconic
CASE STUDY
B.Arch III Spring Semester 2012-13
Aniruddh Jain 10110006
Jha Ashutosh 10110025
Kumar 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.
• Too much design not enough utility
• No utility
• Arbid
Criticism on Zaha Hadid
• I can make it too!
How are these forms made?

Computational Fluid Dynamics

 Columns too big!
• Reflecting the topography of the site, the Heydar
Aliyev 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
Most Advanced Acoustics accommodate a wide variety of events, from
cultural performances to keynote speeches.
To meet this challenge, architects clad the 226,000-square-foot room's interior with rotating pan
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 Aliyev
Cultural 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