Zaha Hadid

Since its initial publication in 2010, "The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure" has become a standard reference for designers; this new edition brings the indispensable volume back into print. The design of infrastructural networks--the systems that enable flow within a structure such as a city, like roads and railways--is among urban design's foremost tasks. Around the globe, the awareness of enhanced infrastructure fluidity as a catalyst for economic development is rising." The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure" investigates how infrastructure design determines the organization and flow of the inhabited landscape--as an agency of enhanced mobility, as a physical presence, as a design feature contributing to the character of a city and as a sound theoretical approach to a positive experience of collective space. In this volume, these four issues are explored in four chapters that catalogue these approaches, and each chapter is buttressed with key projects from around the world by designers such as Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, OMA, Arata Isozaki, Paul Andreu, Xaveer De Geyter, Jean Nouvel and Ricardo Bofill. The authors demonstrate how the creative potential of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design is essential to the effective flow of infrastructural networks.

Artistic expression in the Middle East is experiencing something of a renaissance. Domestic patronage is flourishing, and an impressive array of new museums and art fairs across the region is helping to stimulate international interest in an increasingly influential movement. Art of the Middle East is an accessible overview of modern and contemporary art of the Middle East and Arab world from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on artists active today. This new revised and expanded edition features the work of 12 additional artists, as well as a consideration of the impact of the revolutions of the so-called Arab spring, which erupted across the region in 2011. The featured works are divided into seven themed sections - including literature, portraiture and the body, and politics, conflict and war - while extended captions provide an engaging commentary on each artwork and the artist behind its creation. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this landmark publication is an authoritative guide to a challenging and exciting body of work.

Artistic expression in the Middle East is experiencing something of a renaissance. Domestic patronage is flourishing, and an impressive array of new museums and art fairs across the region is helping to stimulate international interest in an increasingly influential movement. Art of the Middle East is an accessible overview of modern and contemporary art of the Middle East and Arab world from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on artists active today. This new revised and expanded edition features the work of 12 additional artists, as well as a consideration of the impact of the revolutions of the so-called Arab spring, which erupted across the region in 2011. The featured works are divided into seven themed sections - including literature, portraiture and the body, and politics, conflict and war - while extended captions provide an engaging commentary on each artwork and the artist behind its creation. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this landmark publication is an authoritative guide to a challenging and exciting body of work.

Zaha Hadid: Heydar Aliyev Centre is devoted to the new cultural center designed by Zaha Hadid in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. As one of the most important cultural centers in the country, the building houses a variety of institutions under one roof. With the design, the renowned architect won the architecture competition in 2007. Inside its surface of fibre-glass reinforced concrete the building contains an auditorium that seats over a thousand, a conference center, a museum, and a library. Its open, inviting, and curvilinear design, which picks up and expands on forms from the surrounding environment, strongly differentiates the building from the city's monumental architecture of the Soviet era. Photographs by Helene Binet and Iwan Baan display the building in all of its facets, making it possible for the reader to experience its formal, haptic, and spatial qualities. Essays explain conceptual and technical aspects of this impressive piece of architecture.