zaha m. hadid : the zaha hadid lounge, wolfsburg

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the zaha hadid lounge, wolfsburg

august 2001,

the kunstmuseum wolfsburg, invited zaha hadid to undertake
an architectural project inside the museum.
anticipating the architecture of her projected science center,
hadid temporarily remodeled a number of the museum's
exhibition galleries.

an exhibition space for hadid's own architectural museum projects.
models, pictures, drawings, and video simulations:
the center for contemporary art in cincinnati,
the centro per l'arte contemporanea in rome,
and the science center in wolfsburg.
not only the architecture was made visible through models,
drawings, animations, and paintings: the exhibition space itself
is part of the architectural presentation, adding a spatial dimension
to the visitor's experience of the work on show:

painting and drawings are important techniques of investigation
for zaha hadid's design work.
although most of her recent works are massive buildings,
she always draws them as transparent structures.
instead of heavy tectonic plates, she shows ways in which space
can be emancipated from its limitations by a skillful use of geometry
and structure.
her quest for continuity in the architectural landscape proceeds
through the interweaving of open internal spaces.
frequently, she does her architectural drawings with a white line on a
black ground. these works look like sketches and are open to a
wide range of possible interpretations.
in his survey of zaha hadid's work, the architectural critic
aaron betsky (MOMA, new york) speaks of the 'lyrical and gestural
penetration of space' and the "abstract openness" of her most recent
architectural designs.

the lower museum level contains the lounge proper,
a gallery with its own direct access, thus adding transparency to the
museum's existing outreach program.
(it is a test for the architecture of the science center :
a meeting point, a film and video auditorium,
a waiting room; a living room, a lecture room,
a bar, a club, a concert hall, and a disco. )
in spatial terms, the assignment was to create an organic
connection between the public square, the gallery, and the foyer.
after the triumph of the static and homogeneous 'white cube'
as the ruling concept in the museum presentation of art in the
latter half of the twentieth century, the logical next step was
to open up the museum and turn it into a multifunctional,
dynamic structure, a house of many mansions, with a thousand
doors open to the public.
the kunstmuseum wolfsburg has risen to this challenge by
making its peripheral galleries available for a hybrid function,
and by connecting this with the heterogeneity of public space
in order to explore a new, complex and dynamic form of urban living.
an essential component of the lounge is its Z-scape furniture,
designed by hadid for the italian design brand sawaya & moroni.
from 17 march, 2001
http://www.kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.de

science centre wolfsburg
in january 2000, an international jury of architectural experts
and representatives of the city of wolfsburg, germany
awarded first prize in the design competition for the
wolfsburg science center to the iraqi architect zaha hadid.
a virtual ice floe, an alien spacecraft the future science center,
which will keep its visitors informed on all the latest advances
in science and technology, has the look of a mysterious object.
with its low silhouette, the building hugs the shape of the irregular,
triangular site, which it occupies without distorting it.
the traffic routes that connect wolfsburg with the volkswagen
autostadt and the mittelland canal flow through the building.
external and internal spaces interpenetrate.

zaha hadid: 'on the ground floor are the public spaces,
the entrance, the restaurant – comparable with an urban structure.
on the floor above is an open platform on which the museum
activities take place.'

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