The Relationship Between the Interior and Exterior Design of Zaha Hadid's Buildings

Introduction

Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid was well known for her amazing futuristic architecture by curving façades, sharp angles, and severe materials such as concrete and steel and created beautiful pieces of architecture Hadids highly expressive designs are shown using sweeping fluid forms of multiple perspective points.

Zaha Hadid started out as a painter creating wonderful art of futuristic looking art and it was not until 1977 when she started her career as an Architect, Hadids first successful project was Vitra Fire Station (1989-1993).

In recent decades, Zaha Hadid’s work has been credited with a list of very honourable awards. In 2004 she received the Pritzker Prize which was very significant as she was the first woman to receive this prize. In 2010, Zaha Hadid Architects received the sterling prize which was given to a project built or designed in Britain which has had the biggest contribution to architecture. 

Vitra Fire Station

a Zaha Hadids first major build was Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany (1993) this was Hadids first mile stone in the world of architecture which gave Hadid international recognition. When Hadid was initially designing the project, it was only meant to accommodate a fire station but this expanded and her complex design included boundary walls which allowed there to be room for an exercise space and a bicycle shed. The building was to sit around a bend on the street which made the design a challenge.

Hadid has designed the building in such a way where it is purposeful as well as an elegant piece of architecture.

Vitra Fire Station consists of complex shapes and planes while this is not necessary for the purpose of the building ( fire station ) the building is a clear demonstration of the rhetorical power of architecture. The building consists of the engine house where fire engines are stored, shower and changing facilities, a kitchen and also a conference room. The fire station is often described as ‘sculpture-like’ and is mainly made out of insitu concrete. Hadid has been very clever and used the building to define the street in which the site is positioned on.

Hadids design intentions resulted in a long and narrow structure that stretched along the street. The building itself is composed of a series of linear concrete walls and roof elements. The walls, which appear as pure planar forms from the outside, are punctured, tilted, or folded in order to meet internal requirements for circulation and other activities. 

One thing Hadid wanted to maintain throughout the design of the Vitra Fire Station was for it to look simple and give a sense of purity, this was achieved by using in- situ concrete to create the walls which gave them a smooth finish, she had chosen not to use roof cladding and edging because this would have created a distraction from the clean cut edges of the in-situ concrete.

Exterior Features

The materials used for this building was mainly in-situ concrete and steel supports this was because Hadid wanted to make the building simple. It is composed of a series of concrete walls and roofing features, with certain interstitial spaces in between. The walls appear to be flat but on closer inspected are tilted or angled this is to increase circulation throughout the building to meet standards. Zaha Hadid wanted to show many things through the design of the building the first one was a movement this is to reflect the activities that go on in the building. There are also predicted guide lines on the pavement which are designed to show the movement of the intended purpose of the building, for example, there are curved tracks coming out of the garage which show the movement of the fire engine and the other paths would show the routine that the firemen would take when doing their job.

Interior Features

The interior of Virta Fire Station building was designed to reflect the entire buildings purpose which is movement and space this can be seen throughout the building as each element of the interior adds to the feeling of movement in the building as neighboring elements contain lines that run parallel, and the perception to depth is increased by adding slanted planes onto sides of the wall, making each room seem even larger than they actually are. The theme of simplicity carries on throughout the interior in such aspects as windows, stairs and door entrances. Windows in the building do not have frames the stairs are basic stairs however, far from conventional stairs more modern and futuristic yet so basic this has been achieved by only connecting the stairs by one part also the stairs only have a run and have a void instead of a rise. Door entrances in the building have no doors and seem to be open all times indicating they may be used frequently.The light that enters the interior follows the angles of the exterior and it feels direct and logical which reflects the fast movement through the building.

The Guangzhou Opera House

Like many of Hadids work The Guangzhou Opera House has been shaped to resemble to pebbles located on the bank of the Pearl River (Guangzhou Chine). The building started construction in 2004 and was finished 2010 china in 2010. featuring two separate forms that seem to piece together, the project serves as a gateway to the city and was one of zaha hadids biggest pieces of work to be completed.

Exterior design

The exterior of The Guangzhou Opera House is a fascinating shape thought to have been created to resemble two pebbles as a reference to the neighbouring pearl river. The Guangzhou Opera House has many urban functions and has opened access to the nearby river and docks, combining cultural traditions with a contemporary approach. 

The structure is mainly metal frame work of the opera house consisting of many unique, custom-cast steel joints to hold the structure in place. The cladding of the larger building is coloured a charcoal and being made from a rough granite while the smaller building is made from a lighter more of a white coloured granite.

The triangular glass sections of the buildings work great by creating natural light into the buildings as well as opening up as areas for the public.

Fold lines in this landscape create different zones within the Opera House, cutting dramatic interior and exterior canyons for use of circulation, lobbies and cafes, and allowing natural light to pass throughout the building.Fully glazed walls merge interior and exterior environments

The smaller of the two buildings is a multipurpose performance hall, while the larger is the main auditorium. 

Interior design

The interior is split among two separate buildings, the larger buildings spans across  an area of about 36,400m², while the smaller structure spans about 7,400m². The circulation of visitors is created by the massive steel structural frame spine inside the main auditorium space in the larger building. A variety of views are created looking into the main foyer this can be seen from various different levels used for finding orientation and also connectivity throughout the building. The public foyers are allocated between the auditorium and the structural steel of the buildings . The foyers take many paths one of the paths can be taken to the auditorium balconies using slopes and twists to navigate your way through. The outdoors and main entrances are all either accessed through ramps or stairs.

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The Walls and ceilings of the auditorium are made up of about 4,000 white LEDs. The acoustics design was a challenge for the asymmetric performance hall. The design had to consider the all the differences between Chinese and Western operas. To create the correct acoustic levels this is achichived by its unique shape by maximising travel both in width and height meaning less effort is required to fill the auditorium.

London Aquatics Centre for 2012 Summer Olympics

Zaha Hadid started designing this back in 2004 her theory behind the unique shape and design was inspired by fluid geometrics or the flow of water it created space around the olympic park as well as reflecting important features such as the riverside landscape. It was built 2011 for Summer Olympics in 2012. Inside of the stadium consists of three pools, the training pool, the competition pool and the diving pool . The training pool is placed under the bridge and the competition and diving pools are placed in the central hall which is directly under the main roof. The Aquatics Centre is designed to accommodate 2,800 at one time and it also has the ability to fit 1000 more seats which can be available for special events. Due to its wave like structure, the aquatics centre is one of the most visited places by tourists in London. It’s currently used for diving, synchronised swimming and water polo. It has become the main centre for hosting swimming competitions in London.

Exterior features

Once the Olympics had ended and the Olympic grandstands were removed, the east and west facades were built. The east and west facades were shaped sloping inwards coming down from the roof. The shape of the sloped had to follow the wave shaped design of the roof and the merge out of them in a way that makes them look graceful. The posts were placed from diagonal struts to an additional column that was placed behind the façade, this made a support structure to balance the other structural elements. The support structure that is created is fixed at the ground level and this allows all the load to be transferred to the ground. 

The ceiling of the building is made out of hardwood which is sourced sustainably the roof is constructed from structural steel and also aluminium these are 50% recycled materials. The unique structure was made by 2 arched shape structures that span 120m long. The ceiling of the building is clearly one of the main design features of the interior aswell as the exterior. They both follow the same paths as they are both representing the flow of water chosen by Hadid.

Gare from sunshine is prevented as all the glass panes are covered with screen printed black dots that are arranged in a pattern. This will make sure only pleasant sunshine is given and glare is not which would make it more uncomfortable for someone sat in the building or it could affect the performance of one of the atheletes.

The building consists of 628 panes of glass which are placed around the building and there are also 8 external doors, these are the only way natural light is allowed to pass through the building. The external facade is supported with steel sections that separate the panes of glass, Hot water is then passed through the steel sections and this is to prevent condensation forming on the glass and creating a clouded window which wouldn’t be able to pass much light through this is especially essential during the winter months. The exterior is mainly structural glass as well as structural steel Hadid uses these materials to create the shape and form of waves.

Interior features

Inside the Aquatics stadium, the main material that was used was smooth finishing concrete along with tiling to complete the floors which is seen to be the main material as the building is kept quite simplistic with the choice of material as the main focus was the shape and structure of the building. The building is 45m in height and has over 600,000 tiles completed the floor and all three pools.

Conclusion

Zaha Hadid uses very complex curves and features to produce fantastic pieces of architecture, throughout her work she has learnt to let her buildings flow more and the exteriors of her work become more open and take over the shape instead of the exterior. This can be seen throughout her work from her paintings right up until her final pieces.

Hadid is now one of the most famous architects of all time and her architectural style cannot named as her style is so vast her work is often described as unique, strong, powerful and interesting through studying Hadid I have come to notice she creates contemporary iconic architecture which brings a new level of arhictetcuure not just phsyvially but socially. Hadid loves exploring news aspects of design through materials and is always stretching her limits in her architectural career one of her more noticed use of styles is the use of fluid motion where she would create simplistic fluid structures with the use of geometric shapes this can be seen throughout her work especially in The London Aquatics centre. Hadid had a massive love her painting and started out painting in her earlier career and had said some of her designs came from the ideas of lightness and floating structures, and the way they land on the ground gently. Hadid mainly worked with 2 main materials, in situ concrete and glass, she would use these materials, alter and bend them to create natural shapes this is seen in very much of Hadids work. Because of her use of transforming shapes, she was able to create intresting shapes which can create a physical feel as well as mental. Hadids work is very much respected by millions around the world

Hadid’s first opportunity to show off her abstract designs was given to her when she designed the Vitra fire station. The building is made up of in situ concrete planes, which serve to shape and define the street running through the complex, this was Hadids first attempt at making one of hrt paintings become a functional architectural shape. Her style in the 90’s was focused around sharp edges, angular concrete planes and smooth seamless boundaries, this style for was used for her interior and exterior design. Hadid drifted away from this as her architectural career progressed.

Hadid always kept the simplistic element in the majority of her designs Hadid believed by keeping things simple she could achieve more from her designs Zaha Hadid’s design for the 2012 Olympics resulted in a large construction that had the main focus on the roof that raised dipped like an ocean wave, the exterior and the interior of the Olympic stadium reflected the movement of water. Hadids worked had become more of a flow rather than straight lines she created spaces and shapes based on real objects as in the London Aquatics centre she used the curves to create the shape of water.

Zaha Hadid had said that she wanted to move away from her design style that gave her success in the 1980s and this would be shown in the development of her interior and exterior relationship. Her initial design strategy was to use complex shapes and the interior would reflect that by seeming to be unusual where parts of the wall and floors would not seem to be in scale or seem to be larger than they actually, and this would create an illusion. Her more recent designs show how her strategy has changed completely where she now chooses to uses flowing curves rather than angular straight lines. Zaha Hadid has chosen smooth 3 dimensional exploded forms into smooth flowing forms which seem to be less intense on the eye. Simplicity has always been an element of Hadid’s design, for example in the Vitra fire station, the design was based around a complex fragment explosion but she would still keep the simplistic element where the pieces still seemed simplistic as they were one material and they had a lack of edging and exterior cladding. 

Hadid has always worked with the idea of blurring the object in a foreground and background landscape, meaning her buildings would reflect the landscape that it’s around and in some cases, the landscape merges into the building for example this is shown in The Guangzhou Opera House as the Pearl river flows  along side it the building is supposed to replicate two pebbles along the river bed side. Zaha Hadid’s style of work is unique and bold, making her buildings lively and also evoking human emotion. Zaha Hadid’s iconic architecture has made her become one of the most influential and famous architects of all time. 

Bibliography

https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/vitra-fire-station-in-germany-by-zaha-hadid-architects/10002057.article

 https://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/london-aquatics-centre/