The complex will include exhibition halls, spaces for social events, administration premises and a café. Its purpose is to be both an "advertising poster and a temple" of architecture, said the director of the foundation, Rauen Moore.
This building is important not only for London (this is the first new cultural development in the center of the British capital in the last 30 years), but also for Hadid herself - the world-renowned architect has not built anything in the city where she has lived for 32 years. The new building will be located on the South Bank of the Thames, close to renowned cultural institutions such as the Globe Theater, Saatchi and Tate Modern art galleries. The complex will "compete" with the nearby Norman Foster's Swiss-Re and his Greater London City Hall, as well as the giant London's Eye.
The center, worth USD 4.75 million, will be located on a small triangular area. Therefore, Hadid decided the central part of the building in the form of a glass atrium, belted with a concrete tape curved like an arrowhead. The overhanging "nose" of the building gives the impression that it actually takes up more space than its plan suggests.
Zaha Hadid's plan was preferred 208 by other options, among which the authors were Bernard Chumi, FOA, MVRDV and Lacaton & Vassal.
