Metrospective Zaha Hadid

Zaha dropped concrete for steel .

The Architecture Foundation has revealed the full extent of the design changes made to its proposed headquarters in Southwark, a building due to be Zaha Hadid’s first in London.
The scheme, submitted for planning last week, is now steel rather than concrete-framed and will be clad in polished stainless steel, following a tortuous redesign with the budget almost doubling and the timescale slipping by two years (News May 12). The initial design had a dramatic concrete ribbon forming the structural lining of the building.
Asked if the design was more conventional than its predecessor, foundation trustee Frank Duffy said: “That may be the case but, to me, that is not the priority... the main thing is that it works and is a good place to be.”
Foundation director Rowan Moore insisted the design — now a third larger and with extra catering, event and exhibition space —would deliver a building unlike anything the capital has seen.
“The switch from concrete to steel frame came about as a result of site logistics,” he said. “Like any good architect, Zaha reconceived her design in response to new conditions, rather than simply modifying it.
“The design has a new element — the interplay between the very sheer surface of the stainless steel and the revelation of the volumetric interior. It retains the essential characteristics that attracted the jury to her original design: the qualities of billboard and chapel, as the brief put it.”
The building, to be completed in autumn 2008, will be on four levels, with an exhibition area and cafe on the ground floor, event space on the first floor and offices and a boardroom on the top floor.
Hadid said she was “thrilled” to present her new designs. “I am a great supporter of [the AF’s] aim of promoting and encouraging the best of contemporary architecture, bringing in the widest possible audience,” she said.

by Will Hurst

(Pics and txt from www.bdonline.co.uk )