Revista TA 39 - ZHA x2 - Nuragic and Contemporary Art Museum / The Opus Office House
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aha Hadid seems strongly determined to lead architects -and the architecture- for the present decade: among others, her beautiful cavernous competition win design for the new Nuragic? and Contemporary Art Museum in Cagliari, Italy is on the 'drawing boards' for production documentation while, a cube-like mixed-use commercial and retail development, freely and sensually 'hollowed' at its heart, was revealed to the public some few days ago in London.
Envisioned as a project to be completed in three phases, the structure will cover some 12,000 m2, comprised of Nuragic and Contemporary Art exhibition spaces, a library, a congress hall, offices and retail space.
The region of Sardinia intends to promote the building of a "Mediterranean Museum of Nuragic and Contemporary Art" , to be sited at the port of Cagliari. The new museum will be to house Nuragic findings together with works of contemporary art and encourage critical and interpretative comparison between the two spheres. As well as underlining the value of an important aspect of the history and identity of Sardinia -that linked to its Nuragic legacy- the museum, based on this legacy, aims to promote the island within the contemporary art scene, offering it as a reference point for artistic work in the Mediterranean area. The aim of this comparison between Nuragic and contemporary art is also to underline the inextricable and historical link between Sardinia's island and Mediterranean identity.
Urban strategy
The aim of Zaha Hadid's project is to create a node of cultural exchanges that simultaneously serve as a landmark announcing the arrival to Cagliari from the sea, and answer the five challenges proposed by the brief. Through the interconnection of the inner circulation with the public paths and the alternation of open spaces and cavities, the building shares its public dimension with the city. Moreover, it geometrically aligns along the axis of the sea, and extends its arms towards the quarter and the stadium of St. Elia, connecting and assimilating itself to the site.
Architectural concept
The new museum is like a coralline concretion, empty inside, hard and porous on the external surface, able to accommodate, in a continuous osmotic exchange with the external atmosphere, cultural activities in a lively and changing environment. At times it assimilates to the ground, creating a new landscape, while at others it acquires a strong mass defining the new skyline.
The open and dynamic quality of the shape is also pursued inside the building, where the circulation of the visitors through the exhibition, information and commercial paths determine the geometry of the spaces.
The erosion that forms a great cavity inside the building articulates the volume in a succession of open spaces for exhibition, places of aggregation and occasions for installation of contemporary art. Such spaces, visible from a variety of viewpoints, satisfy the perceptive and the aesthetic dialogue between the contemporary and the Nuragic art. The inner cavity allows the genesis of two continuous skins, one contained within the other. The museum program is placed between the "external skin" of the facade system, and the "inner skin", equipped with a flexible serial system of anchorage and electrification, that allows multiple uses of surfaces/walls for installations or video projections.
Paths
The communication, contemporary and Nuragic exhibitions, and the public paths crossing the building and intercepting each other, create the fluid structure of the building, allowing a variety of uses and configurations. The vertical and oblique elements of circulation create zones of interference and turbulence creating a visual continuity between the different parts of the building.
The Public Path
The public commercial path allows visitors to cross the building in parallel with the path along the sea. It offers in sequenced areas a store, bookshop, bars, restaurants, and the systems of 'logge' where outdoor pieces of art could be accommodated.
The Exhibition Paths
The path of the communication area is articulated along the "loggiato" of the ground floor in continuous dialogue with the courts/external cavity. The contemporary art exhibition path starts from the ground floor, crossing the building until the open "logge" of the top floor.
The Nuragic art exhibition path from the ground floor slides between the two skins of the building allowing a more intimate vision of the works of art without sacrificing the view on the great central space.
Phasing - morphology and strategy
The vital metaphor governing the museum proposal becomes clear within the phasing plans: as with living organisms, the growth of the museum will be self-regulated. It will happen naturally when the conditions of a mature balance between the economic atmosphere and philanthropic and cultural environment are reached.
Phase 1
This phase constitutes approximately 50% of the new cultural centre and includes the realization of:
All the spaces to high profit.
Wide spaces of aggregation to the indoor and outdoor: the event space situated in the central cavity, the external cave and the vault used for installations, to correct the chronic lack of visibility of the contemporary art and young artists.
All activities related to communication apart from the large conference hall.
All offices, with the aim to start all the necessary activities of management and marketing of the various departments of the museum.
A small but significant part of the exhibition spaces to generate further interest to create a place for the dialogue between the arts over time.
Phase 2
The consolidation of the museum complex in every new phase transforms the landscape. The second phase is constituted by the completion of the exhibition spaces with other related spaces, including the library and conference hall.
Phase 3
Phase 3 comprises the extension of phase 2 towards the city of Cagliari. It is an isolated building that accommodates the Research Laboratories. It will be connected to the rest of the museum through a "connecting carpet", in order to offer a privileged site by the sea for performance and the production of the adjacent research laboratories.
NURAGIC AND CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM
Cagliari, Italy
2006
CLIENT: Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
Assessorato Pubblica Istruzione
PROJECT: Contemporary art museum, Nuragic art museum, library, congress hall, offices and retail space
ARCHITECTS: Design Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Architect Paola Cattarin
Design Team Paolo Matteuzzi, Federico Bistolfi
Support Team Michele Salvi, Serena Pietrantonj, Vincenzo Barilari, Samuele Sordi
Local Architect Luca Peralta
CONSULTANTS: Nuragic Art Consultant Elisabetta Alba
Environmental sustainability Neil Smith [MAX FORDHAM LLP, UK]
Mechanical & electrical Neil Smith [MAX FORDHAM LLP, UK]
Structure Hanif Kara [ADAMS KARA TAYLOR, UK]
Quanity Surveyors Pasquale Miele
SIZE: 12.000 m2
The beginnings of the nuragic civilization are considered to belong to the final phase of the Bonnannaro culture, 1500 BC. It continued down to the 6th century BC, and in some places lasted up to the Roman conquest of the island of Sardinia. This civilization takes its name from the word nuraghe, the most representative monument, both in size and diffusion, of Sardinia. In Anglona many small communities of villages developed around the nuraghes and near them sacred buildings such as springs and wells , were erected and dedicated to religious cults and rites. The artistic expressions of the nuragic period are mostly represented by the production of bronzetti , a veritable army of bronze statuettes showing priests, tribal chiefs, warriors, archers both on foot and horseback, shepherds and peasants, people in prayer and making offerings.
On 22 May, 2007, Omniyat Properties and Zaha Hadid Architects revealed the Opus, a mixed-use commercial and retail development located in the Business Bay district of Dubai.
The Opus is a fluid, spatial building that refutes traditional definitions of office functionality. Constructed of three separate towers the building will appear as a singular unified whole that hovers from the ground with a distinctive free form void. The interiors will be clad with a fully engineered curved glass curtain wall to allow for eye-catching views into the void. Reflective fritting patterns, in the form of pixelated striations, will be applied onto the glass façade to provide a degree of reflectivity and materiality to the cube while assisting in the reduction of solar gains inside the building.
Masterplan Context
The Opus tower is sited in prominent location in the Business Bay masterplan of Dubai. The two plots are linked by a continuous low level podium structure which unites the project and provides the unique possibility to interpret the project as one mass.
The cube
The separate buildings are conceived as a solid, united mass that takes the form of a cube appearing to hover off the ground. The cube is carved or eroded by a free-form void and is structured by a conventional system of slabs stacked vertically serviced by central cores, allowing for the areas near the façade to be occupied on all eight sides.
The void
The void, which is treated as a volume in its own right (being the space inside the build-mass) is free form and fluid, cutting through the edges of the cube and appearing as if it extends beyond the immediate boundaries of the cube. The interior of the void is clad in tinted double-glazing allowing for views into and thru this space.
Ground level
The ground floor space is developed as a transparent open field with multiple pathways that are drawn into the interior of the plan areas within the two separate lobbies. Each lobby opens out to the four sides of the plot, maximizing the accessibility of the building from the ground level.
The ground level retail areas are organized in two zones, below the ground floor lobby and above; they form an outer ring which is accessible from the outside, while internal retail areas would be accessible from the lobbies.
Façade
Reflective fritting patterns in the form of pixelated striations are applied on to the glass facade to provide a degree of reflectivity and materiality to the cube while assisting the reduction of the solar gains inside the building. These striations dematerialize the buildings' mass whilst the surface appears to capture images of both the outside and inside worlds.
Light and lighting
The appearance of the tower at night is an important factor to the design of the Opus. While the cube appears full in day time and the void as empty, the night time perception would be one of opposites, where the cube appears dark and dematerialized, while the void could be activated with light, visible form a great distance.
Location: Dubai, UAE
Client: Omniyat Properties, Dubai - www.omniyat.com
Client representative: Graham Hallett
Architectural design: Zaha Hadid
Project architect: Christos Passas
Team manager: Vincent Nowak
Competition team: Daniel Baerlecken, Gemma Douglas, Alvin Huang, Paul Peyrer-Heimstaett, Saleem Jalil,
Project team: Chiara Ferrari, Wenyuan Peng, Paul Peyrer-Heimstaett, Javier Ernesto Lebie, Phivos Skroumbelos, Marilena Sophocleous
Project Management gleeds, London
Local Architect Arex Consultants, Dubai
Structural Engineer whitbybird, London
Mechanical and Electrical Engineer whitbybird, London
Fire Engineering SAFE, London
Façade Engineer whitbybird, London
Lift Consultant Roger Preston Dynamics, Berkshire
Traffic Consultant Cansult Limited, Dubai
TA Digital Magazine sincerely thanks Zaha Hadid Architects for their kindness in submitting the requested material for publication.
Investigación, redacción, traducción, adaptación de textos y edición de imágenes Arquitecto Carlos A. Costamagna. Compaginación y edición general Arquitecta Laura Herrera.
