Zaha Hadid: Internationally and in Malta
It’s ironic how much glass is used in Zaha Hadid’s iconic buildings, given how little regard she had for glass ceilings.
Background
Born in Iraq in 1950, Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid accomplished more for architecture and women in the arts over her 65 years than almost anyone in history.
Hadid was known for sinuous lines and ambitious vision. Described by her former professor Rem Koohaas as “a planet in her own orbit”, she never subscribed to any particular school of design and was referenced in various journals as embracing (or defining) deconstructivism, parametricism, abstractionism and neo-futurism. Regardless of how you might classify her genre, her work was award-winning, barrier-breaking and deeply dramatic.
“Always inventive, she’s moved away from existing typology, from high tech, and has shifted the geometry of buildings.” Lord Rothschild, Pritzker Prize jury chairman, upon awarding Hadid with the prize in 2004.
Hadid was the first woman to win the Pritzker, considered the most prestigious in architecture. Some of her award-winning buildings include:
On a trip to Wolfsburg, Germany for a conference on innovation hosted by Volkswagen, I had the pleasure of walking daily under and around the Phaeno Science Center. If I had known that inside were over 250 interactive science displays, I would have extended my visit and gone in.
Designed by Zaha Hadid with local firm AKT II, this won the RIBA European Award and the Institution of Structural Engineers Award for Arts, Leisure and Entertainment Structures in 2006.
The Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (called MAXXI) is a contemporary art and architecture museum in Rome. Zaha Hadid won the contest to design the building, then won the Stirling Prize of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2010 after it opened.
Described by the Guardian as “a masterpiece fit to sit alongside Rome’s ancient wonders”, the MAXXI is as visited for its architecture as for the art within.
The astonishing Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku’s fluid lines are futuristic and romantic, designed to express the optimism of post-Societ Azerbaijan. It hosts an auditorium, a library, exhibition spaces, a conference centre, workshops and a museum.
Zaha Hadid and her firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, along with local partners Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu, won the competition to design this building in 2007. Once completed, this was the first architecture project to win Design of the Year in the annual awards from Design Museum.
Following her passing in 2016, the firm she established, Zaha Hadid Architects, is carrying on her vision of genre-bending structures.
Buy a Zaha Hadid-designed property
Dame Hadid and her firm designed very few buildings intended for accommodation. The most famous is 520W28, a building between the High Line and 11th Avenue in New York City. Completed in 2018, only 39 apartments were built over the 11 storeys, ensuring exclusivity and high prices.
Designed inside and out by Hadid and partners Ismael Leyba Architects, 520W28 is an extraordinary building. Check out the building’s official website.
In 2020, the seven-bedroom penthouse on the top three floors of the building was sold for just over $20m. According to the official website: “The triplex penthouse features a dramatic sculptural three-story staircase, fireplace, private elevator and expansive rooftop terrace with outdoor kitchen.”
Some apartments are still available, or available again, for purchase in 520W28. As I write this, a four-bedroom duplex is for sale for just under $15m.
At a more human scale, the Zaha Hadid Architects’ Mercury Towers complex in Malta is nearing completion and some apartments remain available.
Located in the heart of Paceville, the centre of Malta’s lifestyle and party zone, Mercury Tower and Mercury Suites are the accommodation portions of this sprawling development, which also has a swimming pool; an underground spa; a shopping complex with a luxury department store; indoor and outdoor dining options; a concert hall; an underground amusement part with a Go-Karting track, axe throwing, arcade games and more; and a rooftop bar from which you can see all of Malta spread out below.
Mercury Towers was one of Hadid’s last designs before she passed away. Some apartments are still available for purchase in Mercury Suites and others are coming back for sale in Mercury Tower, where they sold out rather quickly and are just now coming back on the market. Starting from just €308,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, these are far more accessible for ordinary humans than the ones in New York City.
On the second floor of Mercury Suites, four one-bedroom, 58-square metre apartments are available for just €308,000 through Curbsy.
The last remaining three-bedroom apartment is on the same floor. With almost 144 square metres, it is for sale for €617,000.
For anyone looking for better views through the floor-to-ceiling windows, four apartments are left on the eighth floor, ranging from €433,000 for a 69-square metre one-bedroom to €634,000 for a 126-square metre one-bedroom. Here is the last remaining two-bedroom on the eighth floor, with a balcony large enough for a hot tub.
All apartments in Mercury Suites are finished to the very finest of detail, and all residents will have access to the many lifestyle attractions in this complex.
Mercury Tower’s construction is scheduled for completion at the end of 2021. Mercury Suites is planned to complete by the end of 2022.
So tall that it is viewable from all corners of the island, this complex will be the benchmark against which all modern developments in Malta are measured. The glass and concrete structure dominates the skylines (overshadowing the regrettable Portomaso Tower, thank goodness) and will undoubtedly become the cultural nucleus of this most popular area of the island.
