Zaha Hadid Architects | The Circle at Zurich Airport

The fluid shapes of the building respond to two conditions. There is the compact and continuous adjacency to the airport on one side and a convex and eroded condition on the other side in order to maximise the perimeter, to embrace nature and to take maximum advantage of views.

The building’s “interior urbanism” encourages interaction amongst different programmatic modules and sharing of facilities open to the public, whilst maintaining a practical vertical stacking for each module, aimed at rationalizing services and circulation.Critical importance has been assigned to clarity of access and to the relation of entry to both horizontal and vertical circulation within the complex.

These will be related to three major voids or “canyons” cutting through the building section and merging in an open plan top floor.

These “canyons” cover three critically important functions: to indicate major points of entry into the complex, to reinforce the major circulation routes (both horizontal and vertical) and to create a variety of depths of floor plate appropriate to the mix of uses to be accommodated.

The top (8th) level performs as open plan “streetscape” – a promenade dotted with retail (brand space and showrooms), café and restaurants. Using a “shopping mall” paradigm, Spa and Sky Bar belonging to the 5 starts hotel on the north end and exhibition plus restaurant on the south end, act as anchor attractors propagating visitors’ flow throughout the building’s length.Because of its mixed-use nature along the lines of a shopping mall, we propose that the complex should be managed and operated as such, i.e. brand orientated, performance related, feedback rich, with fl exible rent and leasing structures to encourage the cohabitation of complementary uses.

Location: Kloten, Switzerland
Program: Competition Entry for mixed-use building: office, brand space, medical clinics, education facilities, hotel, spa, gym, restaurants, cafes
Date: 2009
Client: Unique

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Architects / Design Associate: Manuela Gatto
Technical Associate: Dillon Lin
Project Team: Hannes Schafelner, Maren Klasing, Teoman Ayas, Lisamarie Ambia, Camiel Weijenberg, Seda Zirek, Ai Sato, Andres Madrid, Amit Gupta, Sophie Le Bienvenu, Rashiq Muhamadali, Roxana Rakshani, Nupur Shah, Fabian Hecker, Saleem Jalil, Daniel Piccinelli
Local Architect: Burkhardt + Partners AG
Interior Design: Woods Bagot
Structural Engineer: Adams Kara Taylor
Facade Engineer: ARUP Berlin
Cost Consultant: Baukostenplanung Ernst
Lighting Consultant: Office for Visual Interaction (OVI)
Fire Consultants: Amstein + Walthert
Landscape Architect: Gross Max
Brand Consultant: Pragma UK

Gross Building Area: 200,000m2
Site Area: 27,845m2
Site Dimensions approx.: 550m long x 70m wide
Footprint: 33,170 m2 (including bridge and upper levels)

Floating Hotel for Ocean Exploration

“Three Spirits” is the master’s thesis of Filip Kurzewski, from the Warsaw University of Technology. The project proposes a floating tourist base and hotel in the form of three ships. Each of the three ships functions as an independent unit. The initial vision of the project was propelled by the author’s numerous personal drawings and painting studies. A great inspiration for the direction of the form, colors, and spatial arrangement came from personal diving experiences. Hand drawing and personal reflections and experiences became a driving force for the author, and are visible throughout the project. They intentionally connect the design with the context of underwater world which hotel guests explore. The thesis topic was carefully selected to reflect the design process, leaving traces of hand sketches and gestures on the final unit. Hand drawings and sketching played an important role in keeping the conceptual idea through all the stages of the design process. The theme was very demanding when it came to the program, justifying the design. The project was also consulted with naval architects. The ships making up a complex ,to a certain degree, differ as for the applied program. If the appropriate localization is chosen, they may form the common assumption – an island “Lang”. Guests can then benefit from the broader scale of supplementary attractions. On the first ship they have a ballroom at their disposal, on the second one – a casino and on the third one – the hall of multifunctional purposes where, inter alia, film shows and theatrical performances are possible. When the ships “meet” they generate a common water area for guests to swim.

One of the main attractions of a particular ship is a diving capsule. Guests can not only practice scuba diving but also they can dive safely in significant depth to see ,for example coral reefs or wrecks. The set of boats is also delivered for guests, and it enables them to choose an appropriate place for recreation, among other things also for scuba diving during the stopover of the ship.

Since each ship is a separate unit there is a possibility of temporary separation of the “vessels” (“vehicles”) in order to carry out different cruises and afterwards a possibility of ships meeting again.