Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu (ed.)

Zaha Hadid Architects Heydar Aliyev Center

Zaha Hadid: Heydar Aliyev Centre is devoted to the new cultural center designed by Zaha Hadid in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. As one of the most important cultural centers in the country, the building houses a variety of institutions under one roof. Inside its surface of fiberglass-reinforced concrete, the building contains an auditorium that seats over a thousand, a conference center, a museum, and a library. Its open, inviting, and curvilinear design, which picks up and expands on forms from the surrounding environment, strongly differentiates the building from the city’s monumental architecture of the Soviet era.

Photographs by Hélène Binet and Iwan Baan display the building in all of its facets, making it possible for the reader to experience its formal, haptic, and spatial qualities. Essays explain conceptual and technical aspects of this impressive piece of architecture.

Zaha Hadid: Heydar Aliyev Centre is devoted to the new cultural center designed by Zaha Hadid in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. As one of the most important cultural centers in the country, the building houses a variety of institutions under one roof. Inside its surface of fiberglass-reinforced concrete, the building contains an auditorium that seats over a thousand, a conference center, a museum, and a library. Its open, inviting, and curvilinear design, which picks up and expands on forms from the surrounding environment, strongly differentiates the building from the city’s monumental architecture of the Soviet era.

Photographs by Hélène Binet and Iwan Baan display the building in all of its facets, making it possible for the reader to experience its formal, haptic, and spatial qualities. Essays explain conceptual and technical aspects of this impressive piece of architecture.

Edited by Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu

With photographs by Iwan Baan, Hélène Binet

With contributions by Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu, Murat Cecen, Joseph Giovannini, Hassan Gozal, Felix Mara,

Design: Integral Lars Müller

21 x 33 cm, 8 ½ x 11 in

128 pages, 85 illustrations

hardback

2014, 978-3-03778-353-5, English
CHF 38.40 CHF 48.00

Zaha M. Hadid

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid (*1950 in Baghdad, †2016 in Florida) began her study of architecture in 1972 at the Architectural Association in London and was awarded with the Diploma Prize in 1977. She then joined the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, began teaching at the Architectural Association and later led her own studio at the AA London until 1987. Her international breakthrough came with the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize (2004) and has received many more awards for her work. Zaha Hadid is considered one of the most influental architects of our time.

Hélène Binet

Hélène Binet (*1959) was born in Sorengo, Switzerland, and is of both Swiss and French descent. She grew up in Rome where she studied photography at the Instituto Europeo di Design and soon developed an interest in architectural photography. Hélène Binet has photographed both contemporary and historical architecture, including the work of architects Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Peter Zumthor. More recently, she has started to direct her attention to landscape photography, wherein she transposes key concerns of her architectural photography. Hélène Binet’s work has been published in a wide range of books, and is shown in both national and international exhibitions. An advocate of analogue photography, Hélène Binet works exclusively with film.

Iwan Baan

Photo Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan (*1975 in Amsterdam) is an architecture and documentary photographer. He has worked for major architectural studios like SANAA, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Toyo Ito, and architects like Steven Holl and Zaha Hadid. His works are published regularly in architectural magazines and newspapers, among them Domus, a+u, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. In his photography, Baan focuses on the connection between architecture and the surrounding environment. Instead of isolating the built structure he embeds it in history and context.