Hasta La Ideas

Zaha Hadid Architects is one of 11 international firms designing a studio apartment at a new McDonald’s charity house in Hamburg to accommodate the relatives of children receiving hospital treatment nearby (+ slideshow).

Set to open this summer, the latest in a series of Ronald McDonald Houses will be located near the Altona Children’s Hospital and will offer accommodation to family members who have travelled far from home to accompany seriously ill children.

Zaha Hadid’s design for Apartment 5 features built-in furniture, wooden fittings and recessed lighting, intended to create a “marine look” and make the space feel larger than it really is.

Described by the firm as “two half shells”, the room will have a wooden base created by parquet flooring and walls that curve up from the ground, and a clean white upper section.

“The wooden shell with its continuous curvatures – from the parquet floor to the inbuilt furniture pieces such as the floating bed and the elevated secretary – lends warmth and a tactile quality to all surfaces that can be reached, touched and played in,” said the architects.

“The inbuilt furniture and the position of the bed within the space leave a large floor space for the family to sit and communicate, and for the kids and siblings to play on,” they added.

Other studios designing apartments include Spanish office Estudio.Entresitio, who proposes a “neutral and cozy” room with furniture that folds away, and French architect Manuelle Gautrand, who has designed a nest-like space made up of wooden platforms.

The list is completed by Appia Contract of Germany, Dutch studio Barcode Architects, German architects Brandherm + Krumrey, EMBAIXADA of Portugal, Austrian firm Hollein & Partner, Belgian studio Low Architecten, Raiserlopes of Germany and Swiss architect Sara Spiro.

German office Graft is also involved and will create communal areas where residents can prepare food, dine and sit together in front of the fire.

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Ronald McDonald charity house appeared first on Dezeen.

We’ve reached the final edition of our festive A-Zdvent calendar of architects, which wouldn’t be complete without Zaha Hadid. The architect’s recent built projects include the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Azerbaijan (pictured) and a new exhibition space for the Serpentine Gallery in London, but she is also working on a stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and a Miami skyscraper.

See more architecture by Zaha Hadid »

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Zaha Hadid appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Zaha Hadid has created a set of rings from lattices of gold filigree for Swiss jewellery brand Caspita.

Zaha Hadid‘s first collection of gold jewellery, designed for Caspita, was unveiled yesterday at the architect’s London Gallery.

The designs were inspired by natural cell structures and comprise a double layer of polygons that form a delicate mesh over the finger.

The front of the band is shaped into a claw-like asymmetric point while the other side is shorter.

Made in black, white, yellow and pink gold, some of the rings have diamonds set into sections of the lattice. Bracelets in a similar style also form part of the limited-edition collection, though no images are available yet.

“This feat of entwined geometries reveals its extraordinary sparkle thanks to the skill of the goldsmiths who expertly hand-polish these prodigiously meshed works,” said the team behind the designs.

After its stint at the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery, the jewellery will be shown as part of an installation at Art Basel Miami Beach from 2 to 8 December.

This isn’t the first time Hadid has designed jewellery: she also created a collection for crystal brand Swarovski in 2010.

Here’s the text sent to us by Zaha Hadid Architects:

Zaha Hadid for Caspita

Zaha Hadid offers Caspita her visionary talent by designing two exclusive pieces, a ring and a bracelet, which will be edited in a limited series and launched at the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery in London on 28 November, on show until 2 December during the Caspita pop-up store at the Gallery.

The collection will then move to Art Basel Miami to be showcased in the temporary installation “Colette art DRIVE-THRU at alchemist” from 2 to 8 December. Succumbing to the charm of Caspita, Zaha Hadid dwells for the first time upon goldsmith’s objects.

This unprecedented partnership is the first of Caspita’s project of astounding collaborations between jewellery, architecture, contemporary art and design. Inspired by cellular structures found in nature, these creations harmoniously intensify the brand’s aphorism “See the invisible”.

The unparalleled Swiss craftsmanship makes the creation of these two sibylline jewels possible, a profusion of lattice in filigree produced in black, white, yellow and pink gold set with diamonds or not.

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jewellery for Caspita appeared first on Dezeen.

Here’s a set of images by photographer Hélène Binet showing Zaha Hadid‘s recently completed Heyder Aliyev Centre that rises from the surface of a plaza in Baku, Azerbaijan (+ slideshow).

London-based architectural photographer Hélène Binet captured the interior and exterior of the cultural centre, which was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects as the main venue for exhibitions, concerts and other cultural activities in the capital city.

The 57,000-square-metre building was conceived as a fluid structure emerging from the ground as folded, undulating ribbons that form a continuous surface and wrap over glazed facades.

Clad with thousands of glass fibre reinforced concrete tiles, the building was designed to be a “celebration of traditional Azeri culture.”

“One of the most critical yet challenging elements of the project was the architectural development of the building’s skin,” said the architects.

The interior features a library, large auditorium, conference centre and meeting rooms.

The structure combines concrete with a steel space frame, with all vertical columns hidden beneath the swooping, folding shell.

Light from the interior spills out over the outer surfaces at knight through gaps in the folds of the exterior.

The building was nominated for awards at both this year’s World Architecture Festival and the biennial Inside Festival.

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photographed by Hélène Binet appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Zaha Hadid‘s gallery space in London is to host a show of work by fashion designer Elke Walter, who creates many of the statement pieces worn by the architect.

Elke Walter creates unconventional one-of-a-kind garments that are draped into extravagant shapes rather than cut and fitted, which have become a favourite of Zaha Hadid‘s.

Walter first met Hadid during Design Miami 2006, where her garments were on display at a charity event. “She just tried on, then about half a year later we were contacted by her PA and she asked if the pieces were still available,” Walter told Dezeen.

Since then, Hadid has chosen Walter’s designs to wear for photoshoots and the opening events for her high-profile building projects including the Guangzhou Opera House.

“When I know it’s for a special event, I do something that nobody else would and she looks so great in it and I love that,” Walter said.

She revealed that she’s happy to find a customer who likes her designs. “Regular customers find my designs too crazy,” said Walter. “Maybe [Hadid] has some of the craziness that I have. I can’t explain why she likes them, maybe there’s a link between how we both think and design.”

Her garments are often voluminous and use a lot of material, creating flexibility and allowing them to fit any body type.

“You can move in it,” she said. “Even if it’s a big piece, you always feel comfortable, like it belongs to you. The pieces are adjustable to different people’s bodies and this comes from the way I cut it.”

Instead of using patterns and cutting sections of fabric to sew together, she drapes and folds the material over a mannequin and sometimes herself so form the shapes.

“I create the shape by cutting straight into the fabric, or holding it up like a sculpture but it takes a lot of time,” she explained. “I want to give it a shape from all sides so you could also put it on a hanger and use it as a decorative piece, thats my goal.”

Walter primarily works with synthetic fabrics as they tend not to crease as much as natural materials.

“The advantage of these new fibres is that you can wash them, you can wear them, you can sit on them, you can sleep in them, they don’t change,” she told us. “I can’t stand it when somebody gets up from sitting in a silk dress and it’s all crinkled.”

Walter will be showing and selling her one-of-a-kind pieces along with a simple range of black clothing she calls Essentials at the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery in London’s Clerkenwell district from 21 to 23 November.

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her favourite fashion designer appeared first on Dezeen.