Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center Set the Tone For Baku’s Post-Independence Skyline

Heydar Aliyev Center. Baku, Azerbaijan.

Since its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has invested heavily in modernizing the infrastructure and architecture of its capital, Baku. Baku is located on the western coast of the Caspian Sea and has a wide variety of architectural styles, from 12th-century fortresses, to Islamic, Victorian and Soviet Industrial Modernism. In an effort to break from the previous century’s rigid, monumental Soviet architecture, the Azerbaijani government requested architectural proposals for a facility to house the nation’s cultural programs, “aspiring to express the sensibilities of the Azeri culture and optimism of a nation that looks to the future.” In 2007, Zaha Hadid Architects won the competition with their design concept to “establish a continuous, fluid relationship between its surrounding plaza and the building’s interior.” Project architect, Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu, stated in an interview with Dezeen that the project intended to express the “soft, romantic side” of Azeri culture and reflect the optimism of Azerbaijan post-independence.” He further stated, “They wanted to have something unique, something which is looking at the future, somehow showing their soft, romantic side but at the same time their optimistic side.” He continued, “When you look at Soviet era [architecture in Azerbaijan], it’s more like monumental internalized authoritarian buildings. So this, we wanted to use this building as an opportunity to soften up and totally depart from that.” The building is named after Heydar Aliyev, First Secretary of Soviet Azerbaijan 1969-1982 and President of the Azerbaijan Republic 1993-2003, and contains exhibition spaces, a library, a museum and concert venues. The current President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev (Heydar Aliyev’s son) inaugurated the structure on May 10, 2012.

The building’s undulations and folds blur the separation between the structure and the surrounding plaza. This fluidity is a reference to the region’s traditional Islamic architecturein which architectural elements flow to infinity. Islamic architecture is also known for its non-hierarchical spaces and continuous calligraphic and ornamental patterns. The plaza’s typography splits the site into two tiered landscapes, which connect the plaza, building and parking, and contains reflecting pools and waterfalls. The ‘handkerchief-like” design is composed of GFRP-cladding (Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer) which hides the extreme engineering of its space-frame structure. This emphasizes the surface rather than the structure and allows the technical systems to be housed in the building’s envelope. The architectural style is described as neo-futuristic, an avant-garde style that emphasizes an aesthetic base around extreme minimalism, curvy forms made out of glass, steel and concrete.

The building’s fluidity continues into the building’s interiors with continuous lines- floors turn into ramps, and into walls, seemingly without end. This is also displayed in the traditional Azeri floral patterns and ornamentation that runs from the floors, to the walls, to the ceiling. Zaha Hadid stated, “We wanted to take the plaza and shape it into an architectural environment, to create a continuous flow between inside and outside, to create a certain infinity.” She continued, “You don’t know where it all starts and ends.” In regards to the museum, library and conference center she said, “The three parts fusing around a central atrium and around a courtyard meant three different shell-like protrusions.” She continued, “Each program has a different look because of its required height: the tall one at the back is the library, with its many floors, and the rise to the side accommodates the conference center, with the auditorium’s fly tower.” (The fly tower is a 1,000-seat performance space.)

Today Baku continues to define its own identity through high-tech and modern architecture. CNN’s Tom Marsden wrote, “a second, post-independence oil boom as created a new 21st century skyline, characterized by innovative structures such as the Heydar Aliyev Center, the Carpet Museum and the Flame Towers.” Marsden also describes Baku as “a city of love and legends, a cultural melting pot where East mingles West—and nowhere can you see this better than in the architecture of the oil-boom.”