ARCHITECTURE:Zaha Hadid’s Retrospective at Venice Biennal of Architecture 2016

In celebration of Zaha Hadid’s career in Architecture and Design that spans 40 years, Fondazione Berengo hosts a retrospective of her work at the Palazzo Franchetti. The exhibition, coinciding with this year’s Venice Architectural Biennale, showcases many of the seminal paintings, drawings and models of Hadid’s repertoire, conveying the ingenuity and dynamism of her architectural projects in a variety of media including photography and film.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Zaha Hadid Architects Archive

Through Zaha Hadid’s designs (built, under-construction, in development and unrealized) the exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti displays the pioneering research and investigation that instigates and defines Zaha Hadid Architects’ work. Zaha Hadid directly engaged with the experimentation of the Russian Avant-garde early in her career, exploring the compositional techniques of fragmentation, layering and porosity that transcend all her projects. Her early works displayed include “Malevich’s Tektonic” (1976-77), Hadid’s fourth-year project at the Architectural Association School in London that bridged the River Thames. Also showcased are the competition winning but unrealized: “Peak Club, Hong Kong” (1982-83), “Hafenstrasse, Hamburg” (1989), “Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London” (1985), “Victoria City master-plan for Berlin“ (1988) and “Cardiff Bay Opera House” (1994-95). The leads and connections between all of Zaha Hadid Architects’ projects are evident in the exhibition’s juxtaposition of these early designs with projects such as the “BMW Central Building in Leipzig” (completed 2005) within a landscape of models that integrates project typologies, formal composition, geography and chronology. Three projects representing milestones in Zaha Hadid’s career also are presented in their own room. Beginning with the Vitra Fire Station (completed 1993) in Weil am Rhein, Zaha Hadid Architects’ first completed project and followed by the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati (completed 2003), which contributed to Zaha Hadid being awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. Concluding the room’s projects is the MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome (completed 2009) which transcends the periods in which the practice implemented and developed its wide-ranging experimentation with the rapid advancements in computer-aided design. Helene Binet’s photographs, capturing the integrity and materiality of Hadid’s projects, are showcased in their own room. Helene Binet began her relationship photographing the Vitra Fire Station in 1992 and has continued to the present day with images of many of the firm’s works including the Salerno Maritime Terminal in Italy which was inaugurated in April 2016. All of Zaha Hadid Architects works in progress are exhibited, including projects to be completed in the coming year: The Port House in Antwerp, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre (KAPSARC) in Riyadh and the Mathematics Gallery at London’s Science Museum. Also included in the exhibition are models, relief studies and visualisations of a residential building on the High Line in New York that will complete in early 2017.

Info: Palazzo Franchetti, S. Marco 2847, Venice, Duration: 27/5-27/11/16, Days & Hours: Daily 10:00-18:00, www.fondazioneberengo.org