15 September 2009

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Zaha Hadid’s plans for Cairo’s Expo City


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If you happen to remark to someone that in your opinion Zaha Hadid is truly the queen of modern architecture, it’s unlikely that you run the risk of being contradicted. However, for many years the revolutionary forms of her buildings, the originality of her architectonic ideas, and the abstract beauty of her designs, while inspiring both admiration and shock, have often been seen as marvellous but unrealisable “visions”.
In 1995, when her design won the competition for the Cardiff Bay Opera House, it seemed likely that the building would come to represent for Wales what Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum has become for Spain.  Yet in the end the structure was never built, despite the fact that the competition was held twice, with the Iraqi architect’s project triumphing both times.

But at a certain point, Zaha Hadid ceased to be merely a “paper architect”.  The construction of a few small, early projects demonstrated that these structures, with their extraordinary and unusual forms, were in fact solid and functional in terms of the use they were designed for, attracting both the attention of the press and recognition and awards in the field of architecture.  And today buildings designed by Zaha Hadid are going up all round the world.

In yet another confirmation of the diverse and multifaceted talent of this "archistar”, who was also the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture, she recently won the international competition to design Cairo’s Expo City, in partnership with Buro Happold.
Thus, in the land of the pyramids and the sphinx, a surprising and ambitious project is set to take pace, truly worthy of the monumentality and ingenuity of Egypt’s ancient marvels – one with the potential to transport this nation from its glorious past into the contemporary world.

The new Expo City will occupy an area of over 450,000  square metres, between the centre of the city and the airport – an ideal position, in other words, for the organisation of international fairs, summits, congresses and conferences.  The main thoroughfare, running north-south across the entire site, will feature an enormous exhibition room,  designed as the  city’s pulsing heart, where the most important events will be held.  On the opposite side there will be a hotel, a shopping centre and two office towers.

The project includes all the award-laden Hadid firm’s trademark ingredients: the soft lines, rounded volumes and organic forms which have fascinated and enchanted the world of architecture. Drawing inspiration from the topography of the nearby landscape, with the building complex reproducing the movement of the desert’s sand dunes and the sinuous lines of the fluvial water that crosses the Nile valley, Hadid’s objective was to “capture the continuity and softness of the surrounding area, reconceptualising it within an urban architectonic context.”

As with the Stone Towers, the complex of monumental towers created in Cairo’s Stone Park, the Iraqi architect’s intention is once again to realise a work that expresses the history, identity and culture of its location, while at the same time maintaining the distinctive characteristics of her art.


Ripalta Borrelli