Zaha's landmark

peter_j

Melbourne's Docklands is about to get a "spectacular" "landmark" building designed by Zaha Hadid. Apparently the 60 storey office and residential tower is going to be very expensive and very green. RAIA Victoria president Philip Goad sounds enthusiastic: "Docklands could do with a much greater degree of architectural sophistication... It needs to rise above the developer schlock we now have." Local architects on the job are Ashton Raggatt McDougall. VicUrban has nothing to say on the matter, it does not discuss proposals under consideration. The Age doesn't seem to have sought comment from the new landlords of Docklands, the City of Melbourne.

Is another showy building in docklands going to fix the area? Hopefully we get some decent public spaces as part of the package.

The paper version of today's Age has a rendering, the web version only has a giant pic of Ms Hadid.

THE AGE 02.08.07

ZAHA HADID

A R M

peter_j

I dredged the net for the front of yesterday's Age, here it is (thank you to the scanner from skyscrapercity):



Someone told me today that someone told them that this Hadid complex looked a bit similar to one in some city beginning with 'M'. After catching up on recent work in Madrid and Moscow, I found three office towers named Fiera di Milano. The buildings in the image below have been designed by, from left, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Arata Isozaki:



In a small article about the Milan towers, Slate magazine concludes, "As new as this may be, it all feels a little forced. Being iconic is getting harder all the time."
SLATE

[tip KM]

kang

is it just me, but if that's what's proposed for the Docklands, it looks pretty contrived to me.

mark_melb

It was interesting to read the monograph of Hadid in 'The Age' by Stephen Bailey plucked from London 'Observer' newspaper.

I laughed as he began the article by stating that Architecture was the second oldest Profession.

I assume the oldest profession is Interior Design?!