#new vs old

Antwerp Port House by Zaha Hadid… dividing opinion in true Zaha style.

How could I let this one go by without posting about it? This past week, one building has dominated the news feeds of just about every design/architecture-based page out there… and for good reason. 

It seems so common now for the architecture of Zaha Hadid Architects to passionately split the opinion of the community that it almost seems fitting for her name to be considered an adjective in its own right. Anything causing adoration in some and unbridled rage in others could just be ‘a Zaha way of doing things’. 

Levity aside, the late, great (depending which side you fall on) Zaha’s latest addition to an already pretty shock-and-awe catalogue is this achingly modern ship-like form that rises out of an old fire-station-turned-port-authority-building in Antwerp. It seems death has not stopped Lady Hadid from riling up the architecture faithful, with some declaring the building an instant, inspirational success, while others demonise it as a gaudy, insensitive monstrosity. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve seen more extreme responses at both ends of the scale over this design than ever before with a Zaha building, which I suppose is the ultimate aim of a building trying to be art… for is that not the very thing art is intended to do: stir up opinion?

Personally, much as I am a fan of the studio and their work, this one doesn’t do it for me. Call the original building boring if you want to, but I think I’m on the side of those who say it should have been restored and left well alone. Each to their own I guess. 

More at: dezeen

Library of Birmingham, Birmingham, England. Opened on the 3rd September 2013, standing at 60 metres in height with 9 floors.

Birmingham, The Cube mixed use building in the distance designed by Ken Shuttleworth, opened in 2010, 25 floors over 70 metres in height.