Zaha Hadid Architects. Heydar Aliyev Center

Zaha Hadid Architects: Heydar Aliyev Center is devoted to the new cultural center designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. As one of the most important cultural centers in the country, the building houses a variety of institutions under one roof. With the design, the renowned architect won the architecture competition in 2007. Inside its surface of fiberglass-reinforced concrete the building contains an auditorium that seats over a thousand, a conference center, a museum, and a library. Its open, inviting, and curvilinear design, which picks up and expands on forms from the surrounding environment, strongly differentiates the building from the city’s monumental architecture of the Soviet era.