Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre
Architect Photographer
Renderings by Zaha Hadid Architects ©
CompletedFuture Project
Project Information
The ‘energy’ of the Performing Art Centre is symbolized by the predominant movements in the urban fabric along the pedestrian corridor and the Cultural Centre’s seafront promenade – the site...
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Project Information
The ‘energy’ of the Performing Art Centre is symbolized by the predominant movements in the urban fabric along the pedestrian corridor and the Cultural Centre’s seafront promenade – the site’s two intersecting primary elements.
Branching algorithms and growth simulation processes have been used to develop spatial representations into a set of basic geometries, and then superimposed with programmatic diagrams and architectonic interpretations in a series of iteration cycles. The primary components of this biological analogy (branches, stems, fruits and leaves) are transformed from abstract diagrams into architectonic design. The central axis of Abu Dhabi’s Cultural District is a pedestrian corridor that stretches from the Sheikh Zayed National Museum toward the sea. This central axis interacts with the seafront promenade to generate a branching geometry where islands are formed, isolated, and translated into distinct bodies within the structure to house the main spaces of the centre. The sculptural form of the Performing Arts Center emerges from this linear movement, gradually developing into a growing organism that sprouts a network of successive branches. As it winds through the site, the architecture increases in complexity, building up height and depth and achieving multiple summits in the bodies housing the performance spaces, which spring from the structure like fruits on a vine and face westward, toward the water.
Branching algorithms and growth simulation processes have been used to develop spatial representations into a set of basic geometries, and then superimposed with programmatic diagrams and architectonic interpretations in a series of iteration cycles. The primary components of this biological analogy (branches, stems, fruits and leaves) are transformed from abstract diagrams into architectonic design. The central axis of Abu Dhabi’s Cultural District is a pedestrian corridor that stretches from the Sheikh Zayed National Museum toward the sea. This central axis interacts with the seafront promenade to generate a branching geometry where islands are formed, isolated, and translated into distinct bodies within the structure to house the main spaces of the centre. The sculptural form of the Performing Arts Center emerges from this linear movement, gradually developing into a growing organism that sprouts a network of successive branches. As it winds through the site, the architecture increases in complexity, building up height and depth and achieving multiple summits in the bodies housing the performance spaces, which spring from the structure like fruits on a vine and face westward, toward the water.
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