On June 26, the first in Russia retrospective of Zaha Hadid, the world star of architecture and the first female architect in history to be awarded the Pritzker Prize, opened at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The exhibition, the project of which was prepared by the Hermitage and Zaha Hadid's studio especially for the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace, presents about 300 models, drawings, photographs, sculptures and design objects. The exhibition includes experimental sketches of the 1980s, the first completed projects and works of recent years.
Much attention at the exhibition is paid to the Fire Station on the Vitra campus. It was this building, completed in 1993, that became Zaha Hadid's first completed project in the world. Hadid's radical deconstructivist structures, inspired by the Russian avant-garde and especially by Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist quests, brought her critical acclaim already in the 1970s. However, her style was considered too audacious for use in functional structures and difficult to implement from a constructive point of view. Vitra, led by Rolf Felbaum, was the first to believe in the master of "paper architecture", inviting Hadid to create a real object on the territory of the factory campus in Vejle am Rhein.
Recall that after a fire that happened in 1981 and destroyed more than half of Vitra's production fund, Rolf Felbaum decided to abandon the rapid construction of faceless standard structures in favor of outstanding architectural structures. From that moment, Vitra began cooperation with world famous architects and the creation of a unique ensemble on the production site, which today is an open-air museum of modern architecture. As Felbaum explains, “The appeal of Hadid's architectural compositions lies in their mobility, speed of construction and functionality. Zaha Hadid turned out to be the most suitable architect for the construction of the Fire Station."
The sharp-angled sculptural forms of the Station are in a fixed state of transition from tension to movement, which makes the building look like a "frozen explosion". The composition consists of cement planes, different types of space bend, collide and break, interacting with the landscape surrounding the architecture. Visitors enter the world of optical illusion - the two levels of the building seem to rotate relative to each other. According to Rolf Felbaum, "The Fire Station shows a completely new concept of space" - it is "the most impressive fire station in the world."
The Vitra Campus Fire Station was a turning point in Hadid's career, and its buildings were built around the world from London to China. Her buildings have also appeared in Russia - the Villa Capital Hill Residence by Naomi Campbell and Vladislav Doronin in the Moscow Region and the recently opened Dominion Tower business center in Moscow. It became symbolic that the presentation of the Pritzker Prize to Zaha Hadid, the highest award that has the status of the Nobel Prize in architecture, took place in 2004 within the walls of the Hermitage Theater.
In 2013, the Vitra Campus celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Fire Station. On this occasion, Zaha Hadid, with the support of Swarovski, created the installation Prima, which interprets the work on the project. Lines and planes grow out of the architect's painting and graphics, taking on the three-dimensional forms of a dynamic structure. At the moment, the responsibility for fire safety on campus is entrusted to the Weil am Rhein municipal brigade, while the masterpiece of deconstructivism created by Zaha Hadid is not only one of the pearls of the architectural ensemble, but also serves as a venue for exhibitions and cultural events.
Continuing her collaboration with the progressive Swiss brand, in 2007 Zaha Hadid created the Mesa (flat-topped hill) table for the Vitra Edition, a collection of experimental objects from the world's foremost designers, initiated by Rolf Felbaum. The object studies connections within space and is a microcosmic model of Hadid architecture. Two horizontal planes, symbolizing heaven and earth, define the structure of the world. The voids that appear between them continue to construct the surface - the architect compared them to water lilies, whose flat leaves support organic structures invisible to the eye in the depths. The form becomes plastic, the table as if bends the space both within itself and around.
In 2009, Zaha Hadid Architects created an architectural installation for a concert hall at the Manchester Art Gallery, designed specifically for the performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical compositions at the Manchester International Festival. The space of the hall is surrounded by a translucent membrane-tape, which creates a visual embodiment of the relationship between the formal and structural logic of Bach's complex harmonies. The tape creates a multi-level space, surrounding the performer and the audience with a kind of cocoon, which not only highlights the stage space and emphasizes the intimate, chamber character of concerts, but also serves as an acoustic solution. (Watch the link for a video of the installation of the structure.) Maintaining the organic outlines of the structure, Vitra Panton Chairs are installed as seating in the hall. As with the architecture of Zaha Hadid, Vitra has given a start to this piece by Danish designer Werner Panton. Industrial production designed in 1959/60. the object was preceded by a ten-year path of joint experiments between the designer and the manufacturing company.
material provided by Vitra
