HEYDAR ALIYEV CULTURAL CENTER, BAKU, AZERBAIJAN

Heydar AliyevCultural Center

Architect:

Zaha Hadid Architects, Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher

Associate Architect:

Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu

Year of construction:

2007-2012

Roof Height: 74m

Length: 10,092m

Floors: 9

Built-up Area: 57.519m2

Location :Baku, Azerbaijan

INTRODUCTION The Heydar Aliyev Center, with 57,519 m2 built, is a

complex of buildings designed by British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, noted for its architecture and fluid curved style that avoids sharp angles.

The center is named Heydar Aliyev, leader during the Soviet Azerbaijan 1969-1982, and president of the country from October 1993 to October 2003.

The Heydar Aliyev Center, an internationally recognized architectural work, has become a benchmark in the modern Baku, due to its innovative and cutting edge design.

The building was nominated for the World Architecture Festival and Inside Biennial Festival in 2013.

LOCATION

Located near the city center, the site has a fundamental role in the redevelopment of Baku, Azerbaijan Republic, on the west coast of the Caspian Sea. To access the center has planned a new subway line that leaves the visitor at the foot of the small hill on which the building sits.

The spaces surrounding the Cultural Center of HeydarAliyev were approbed for residential, offices, a hotel and a shopping mall, while the ground between the cultural center and the main artery of the city became the Cultural Plaza, a space open for public use.

CONCEPT

The structure accompanying Hadid variations within the unit.

With a continuous self- processing design in all directions, there is little sense of limits, and no indication of completion is an immersion in a bath of space.

The immateriality of a building varies between white, whiter and even whiter depending on the incidence of the sun on their surfaces, give a weightless character, releasing gravitational visitors obligations.

As an object, the building is subjective, causing strong feelings triggered by the suspension of physical gravity .

An agile spatial structure of two layers, is the main support of the double jacket which are smoothly curved along the top and bottom of the outer casing, the structural frame and concealing emphasizing the surface rather structure , as if the building was all effect and not cause.

Represents a fluid form that emerges by the folding of the natural topography of the landscape and the wrapping of individual functions within.

All features, together with the inputs are represented by folds in one continuous outer surface.

Fluidly connecting the various cultural spaces and at the same time, provide each member of the Centre its own identity and privacy.

Following the inner folds, skin erodes to become an element of the interior landscape of the Centre.

The shapes of the 57,519 m2 cultural center show the lightness of a scarf billowing in freefall.

The center is designed to become the main building of cultural programs.

SPACES

Baku complex actually consists of three buildings, a conference center with auditorium and halls, a museum and a library, connected via an interior space and the curve and "fluid" outer skin that winds throughout the structure.

The complex also houses a restaurant and a parking.

Exterior access visitors find the building through a long and steep park with a zigzag path,

leading to a square paved with squares of white concrete, The landscape emerges from the ground to blend with the building. This

area called Cultural Plaza. In response to plummeting to the ground above topographically divided

into two, the project has a terraced landscape that provides alternative routes and connections between the public square, construction, and underground parking.

This solution avoids additional excavation and fill and successfully converts an initial disadvantage of place in a key design feature.

Cultural Plaza The design of the Heydar Aliyev Center provides a continuous and fluid

relationship between the surrounding square and inside the building. The plaza, accessible to the public as part of the urban fabric of Baku rises

to wrap an equally public interior space and define a sequence of event spaces dedicated to collective celebration of both contemporary and traditional Azeri culture.

Extrapolated the fluid forms the center environment creating a series of terraces interlaced with mirrors, waterfalls, ripples, bifurcations, folds and flexures that turn the surface of the square in an architectural landscape that fulfills many functions, welcoming and directing visitors through different levels to the inside.

With this gesture, the building blurs the conventional distinction between object and architectural cityscape, building envelope and urban square, figure and ground, inside and outside.

A cut of the barrel at the front of the housing carries the glass doors that open to a corridor of whiteness.

Interior The inside center is characterized by

continuous surfaces that twist to transform the ceiling walls and ramps.

The ground floor has several spaces lobbying aimed at creating public places that unite the different aspects of the program of the center.

From these rooms welcome inside the building continues the theme of the merger, with continuous surfaces.

Soils become ramps and walls, turning on ceiling ceilings, then keep turning and moving out of sight, forming endless white landscapes.

Library The Library is oriented north to take advantage of natural

light and has its own entrance. Levels dedicated to reading and file are stacked one above the

other, wrapped in the folds of the outer skin. Plants tumble over one another with ramps which connect,

creating a continuous circulation path. The Library and Museum are also connected by a ramp that

leads through the ground floor of the Library, to the first floor of the Museum.

The Library is connected to the conference room through a bridge that 'fly' over the entrance hall.

Its shape reaches the Cultural Plaza, leaning to create the necessary slope leading to the seats of outdoor space.

Auditorium

The auditorium and its associated facilities have direct access to the Plaza.

The main entrance is on the void created in the outer layer, "stretching" of the volume of the museum and the library tower.

The secondary entrance is on the north side of the building.

STRUCTURE

The building consists of two main systems that collaborate: concrete structure combined with a system of spatial structure.

large-scale columns allow visitors to experience the fluidity of the interior, vertical structural elements are absorbed by the walls and curtain wall system.

The special geometry of surfaces promotes unconventional structural solutions, such as the introduction of curves "Boot columns" for reverse shell from the ground surface to the west of the building, and the "duck tail" resulting from the narrowing of the cantilever beams that support the skin of the building on the east side.

The space frame system allows the construction of a free form structure and saves time during the construction process, while the substructure has been developed to incorporate a flexible connection between rigid grid of the spatial structure and sheathing seams freely.

These seams were obtained from a process of rationalization of the complex geometry, use, and aesthetics of the project.

The glass fiber reinforced concrete and fiberglass reinforced polyester were chosen as materials ideal coating, allowing the powerful plasticity building design while responding to very different functional requirements related to a variety of situations: square, transition zones and sheath.

Materials

The building, whose distorted grid panels soft polyester reinforced fiberglass has no visible connections, is less "as built" and more like "if landed".

The construction has been used 121,000 m3 of reinforced concrete, 194,000tn formwork and 19.000tn mold steel.

To shape the outer skin 5,500 tons of structural steel were needed, creating the 40,000 m2 basis area for panels made from fiberglass reinforced polyester or with concrete, a total of almost 17,000 individual panels with different geometries.

Lighting To emphasize the ongoing relationship between the

exterior and interior of the building, lighting HeydarAliyv Center has been carefully considered.

During the day the volume reflects light, constantly changing its appearance depending on the time and perspective.

The use of semi- reflective glass hints at undisclosed inside space trajectory .

At night, the building is gradually transformed by the light that flows from within, the formal composition to reveal its contents and continue to maintain the fluidity between interior and exterior develops.

GROUNDFLOOR

FIRSTFLOOR

SECONDFLOOR

THIRDFLOOR

FOURTHFLOOR

FIFTHFLOOR

SIXTHFLOOR

SEVENTHFLOOR

EIGHTHFLOOR

ELEVATION

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SECTIONAL VIEW

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