Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku Azerbaijan – Zaha Hadid Architects
The Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku is an iconic cultural landmark that redefines the city’s architectural identity. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the building is renowned for its fluid, continuous form—eschewing traditional angles in favor of sweeping curves that evoke movement and transformation.
Conceived as a symbol of progress and openness, the center houses a museum, exhibition halls, and a conference space, all unified within a seamless, flowing skin of white concrete and glass.
“In this practice we know how to do curvature and double curvature…Our project sits in such a way that it’s not within the old city. It’s at its perimeter, which is exciting because you’re working in an area that you can help to regenerate. We weren’t interested in mimicking past architectural styles, because we were excited by this idea of taking a public plaza and creating groundswells with it to create the architectural spaces. When you look at the past Soviet structures we wanted to break away from that rigid, introverted style.” Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu, Project Architect on Zaha Hadid Architects.
