Zaha Hadid wins Vilnius Guggenheim

[Johnnyhoong]

click on image to link to article

Zaha Hadid has won the competition to design the new Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, beating Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliano Fuksas.

The New York-based Guggenheim Foundation will share exhibition space with the Russian Hermitage Museum at the site, which is expected to attract up to 400,000 visitors a year, and will focus on exhibitions of new media art.

A joint team will now complete a feasibility study for the Hadid scheme this summer, with the institution due to open in 2011, two years before the Guggenheim’s Abu Dhabi museum.

source : BD; The Architect Website

[Johnnyhoong]

more related news:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=19573220

[vOid]

More in Dezeen and in The Architects' Journal.

[seabert]

hmmmm...

another stylish clone from Zaha inc. ...a blob in motion with a circulation tail...

After Europe and the Middle-East now Eastern-Europe is starfucking too...

And the companies even admit that they are selling out...I recently had the chance to talk with one of the assistants of the Zaha 'factory' who was mostly working on projects in the Middle-East and he was talking about their clients just wanted the building to look just like the other ones...but only crazier. They made a concert hall 20m higher, because it looked better and by doing that destroying the akoustics of the space. The 'sheik' (don't know the proper english word) even assigned his own classic-style painter to do some of his own interventions, hense the butt-ugly balconies...They even added a second building at the last minute...just because it looked BIGGER...

At one side i'm happy that the guy i was talking to knew and aknowledged that this isn't the way to make 'good' architecture but on the other hand it's sad that companies like these just throw away their pride and principals, that they stop innovating...just for the money...

but hey i'm rambling...and perhaps it's just all business...but why did i spend al this time reading the books and manifests of these STARS...

btw congratulations Vilnius...you now got your own Hadid...

ioooo

[brian.coates]

I must admit it's hard to tell her projects apart from each other.

[missnikki]

i would love to see what the floor plans are like

[rachid]

i can't believe Vilnius would stoop to such lows. such a beautiful city and such an ugly building, the one saving grace is that it appears to be nowhere near its old town or old castle. hadid has lost the plot her work is all so gimmicky now- no apparent substance. i wonder at what point you become a caricature of yourself and more importantly how long it takes you to realise?

i have a friend who works there and i think its time i phoned her and had a chat.

it such a prosperous time for the architectural fraternity world wide. money is being thrown at it from all corners of the globe and sadly little is being done to build confidence in the future of the profession.

r

[toddy]

I have often wondered to myself how much her designs relate to their context. This building is an ugly one, but it doesn't even feel unique in my opinion.. to me they exude a lack of sensitivity. They are cold and imposing. I know her work is certainly futurist and her buildings are definitely iconic..but that doesn't mean the architecture is brilliant. Perhaps I am missing something with her designs but they don't really impress me any more.. (they did when I first discovered some of her buildings but since then they seem to lose their impact, and become a bit samey in my opinion) on the plus side I think seeing some examples like this help me to understand this term "starchitecture" I've heard being thrown about!

Maybe she's just ahead of her time and I'm not developed enough as a true visionary to understand her brilliance, but I will say one thing for sure.. no matter how much you love her or hate her, visionary or self-caricature.. I think we can agree that she designs one awful car..

[missnikki]

Looking at the proposals personally i found libeskind to be a better scheme, but thats just my opinion, i agree to some degree i think zaha works is more to live up to her known styles rather then creating a building for its context but maybe it is ahead of its time, only time will tell

[Jimmern]

...and here's another Zaha win (or atleast a tie) in Jordan.