Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid Architects announce the design
of the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre:a new cultural institution for
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on behalf of the Tourism
Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (TDIC).Zaha Hadid
unveiled the design of the new Performing Arts Centre at a press
conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE today.
Hadid’s
Performing Arts Centre concept, a 62 metre high building is proposing
to house five theatres – a music hall, concert hall, opera house, drama
theatre and a flexible theatre with a combined seating capacity for
6,300. The Centre may also house an Academy of Performing Arts.The Abu
Dhabi Performing Arts Centre will be one of five major cultural
institutions on the new 270-hectacre cultural district of Saadiyat
Island in Abu Dhabi - developed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
on behalf of the Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu
Dhabi (TDIC).
Zaha Hadid
described the design of the Performing Arts Centre as “a sculptural
form that emerges from a linear intersection of pedestrian paths within
the cultural district, 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.”“The Abu Dhabi Performing
Arts Centre is a continuation of the long-standing relationship we have
with the Guggenheim Foundation and with the Emirate. We are very
honoured to be a part of the project,” states Hadid. “Our first
Guggenheim exhibition design, ‘The Great Utopias’, was in 1992 whilst
the very successful mid-retrospective of our work closed at the
Guggenheim Museum in New York less than two months ago. We’ve also been
working in Abu Dhabi for many years, the Sheikh Zayed Bridge was a
seminal project for the office and its construction is well underway”.
Thomas
Krens, Director of the Guggenheim Foundation said, “In Abu Dhabi we
have had the good fortune to discover a partner that not only shares
our point of view, but expands upon it. The plans for Saadiyat Island
and the cultural district, envisioned and developed by the Abu Dhabi
Government, are, quite simply, extraordinary. When this comprehensive
and inclusive vision is realised, it will set a standard for global
culture that will resonate for decades to come.”

'The Taichung Metropolitan Opera House' where Zaha's design came second. Ito won the competition:

very similar in concept and design... isnt it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!