A First Glance at Zaha Hadid’s Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport

© Culture & Sport

Here is the first look at Zaha Hadid Architects latest project, Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport. Slated to officially open later this week the museum in Glasgow, has 7,000 sqm of exhibition area and also includes cafe, retail and education spaces within its program. Following the break are more photographs and description.

© Culture & Sport Glasgow

The concept for the building as described by the architects:

The historical development of the Clyde and the city is a unique legacy; with the site situated where the Kelvin flows into the Clyde the building can flow from the city to the river. In doing so it can symbolise a dynamic relationship where the museum is the voice of both, linking the two sides and allowing the museum to be the transition from one to the other. By doing so the museum places itself in the very context of its origin and encourages connectivity between its exhibits and their wider context.

© Lenny Warren / Warren Media

The building would be a tunnel-like shed, which is open at opposite ends to the city and the Clyde. In doing so it becomes porous to its context on either side. However, the connection from one to the other is where the building diverts to create a journey away from the external context into the world of the exhibits. Here the interior path becomes a mediator between the city and the river which can either be hermetic or porous depending on the exhibition layout. Thus the museum positions itself symbolically and functionally as open and fluid with its engagement of context and content.

Photographs:  Flickr Creative Commons:  Culture & Sport Glasgow, Lenny Warren / Warren Media

* Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
Cite: "A First Glance at Zaha Hadid’s Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport" 06 Jun 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 24 May 2013. <http://www.archdaily.com/141274>

7 comments

  2. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    Well, whatever you say about it, people are still going to love it. It is Zaha Hadid after all.

    We know we do love it :)

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  4. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    Context, scale, public space, I guess these are not issues Zaha concerns herself with… Too bad, Glasgow deserves better.

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    • Thumb up Thumb down 0

      One of the main function of projects like this is to be iconic. That icon comes with additional tourism revenue for the city, additional development, and more public exposure for the arts… What difference does it make whether or not it deals with issues of formal context or scale–or, for that matter, what the interiors are like?

      Reply
  5. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    And once again the project descriptions attempt to talk you in circles and talk the building into doing more than it actually does.

    Reply
  6. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    By cruel hands the sapling drops,
    In dust dishonour’d laid;
    So fell the pride of all my hopes,
    My age’s future shade.

    Reply

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