Regium Waterfront by Zaha Hadid Architects
The Municipality of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, has signed an agreement with Zaha Hadid Architects for the Regium Waterfront project.
The project aims to define the city of Reggio Calabria as a Mediterranean cultural capital through the realization of two characteristic buildings: a museum and a multifunctional building for performing arts.
The location of the site on the narrow sea strait separating continental Italy from Sicily, offers an opportunity to create two unique buildings visible from the sea and the Sicilian coast: a Museum of the Mediterranean History and a Multifunctional Building.
The form of the museum draws inspiration from the organic shapes of a starfish. The radial symmetry of this shape helps to coordinate the communication and circulation between different sections of the museum and its other facilities. The Museum of Mediterranean History will house exhibition spaces, restoration facilities, an archive, an aquarium and library.
Visit the website of Zaha Hadid Architects – here.
The Multifunctional Building is a composition of three separate elements that surround a partially covered piazza. The building will house the museum’s administrative offices, a gym, local craft laboratories, shops and a cinema. Three different auditoriums, which can be converted into one large space, are also housed in the Multifunctional Building.
“I am absolutely delighted to be working in Reggio Calabria. The project will be a gathering place for people of all ages – presenting the Mediterranean’s rich and diverse history with visual and performing arts to enhance the cultural vitality of the city; providing an essential venue for discussion and discourse where the public engages with the spaces and with the exhibitions. This connection between culture and public life is critical; as what differentiates museums of the 21st Century from the previous century is that the client is no longer simply one patron. The client is the public – it’s many people, which makes this project really exciting.” states Zaha Hadid.
Project Design:
Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher
Project Architect:
Filippo Innocenti
Design Team:
Michele Salvi, Roberto Vangeli, Andrea Balducci Castè, Luciano Letteriello, Fabio Forconi, Giuseppe Morando, Johannes Weikert, Deepti Zachariah, Gonzalo Carbajo
zEro on 17 Feb 2009 at 9:28 am #
Really, it’s starting to get boring!
rj on 17 Feb 2009 at 5:19 pm #
agree zero..
kast on 18 Feb 2009 at 9:57 pm #
the aerial view is stunning but ironically there is nothing that been implemented to the elevation ,empty ,,boring ,,nothing …we’re human not a bird that can fly to admiring the building…
Laus on 19 Feb 2009 at 3:07 am #
Where is the architecture??? I don´t think that´s a building, it´s just another model with no sense.
A-ionic on 19 Feb 2009 at 9:20 am #
Too out of this world. Top view’s the much better vista but 1 side looked like a shark and another side i thought was a mammoth sperm whale. No trace of organic relevance. Just my opinion its too similarly Zaha. She’s a fan of mine but not this time.
Miguel Sá, Arqt on 19 Feb 2009 at 9:24 am #
well…. uhhhmmm… ahhhh it’s like deep sadness, is running the ideas!! poor Zaah
bahlool basha on 26 Feb 2009 at 8:15 am #
this is just the conceptual phase, this modeling is not the final, as u all see it is only the structure plus people. Design development is still in progress
Alan architect on 08 Mar 2009 at 3:38 am #
Bravo..wonderful
this is architecture because now 2009…
rich hollingsworth on 05 Apr 2009 at 8:04 pm #
…and i suppose right angles and squares are still inspiring and are not yet boring ?
zaha represents a new class of architecture
Pao on 06 Apr 2009 at 6:19 pm #
one of the breakthrough’s in architecture is to create a structure that blends in with the environment rather than a building sprung out of nowhere.. and i believe zaha has accomplished this breakthrough.. besides the style of presentation (empty elevation with people on it) is a way to showcase an architectural work.. being able to show the architecture itself with minimal entourage just to show the scale.
Allan on 06 Nov 2009 at 7:33 pm #
So Zaha !
I love her.