Photographer: Virgile Simon Bertrand | ArchDaily

Songshan Lake Exhibition and Performance Centre / ZHA

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Located in Dongguan within the Greater Bay Area of southern China's Pearl River estuary, the new Songshan Lake Exhibition and Performance Centre is at the heart of a mixed-use masterplan to revitalize the Yuehe Lake waterfront. Designed by ZHA to serve as a civic and cultural anchor of the growing community, the Songshan Lake Exhibition and Performance Centre (SSLEPC) will host a variety of national and international events, exhibitions, and performances for audiences of all ages. The centre's public programme was inaugurated with its opening concert, 'The Sound of Songhu' led by the China National Symphony Orchestra.

ArchDaily's Best Architectural Projects of 2025

Hana Abdel — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

As the year culminates, it's once again time for the ArchDaily team of curators to reflect on the best-performing projects of 2025 and consider what readers were most interested in. Through this diverse overview, we assess the cross-continental similarities and differences in trends and construction development. This year brought us many grand cultural and public spaces by Lina Ghotmeh, BIG, Zaha Hadid Architects, DnA, and Serie Architects, who populated events like Expo Osaka and the Venice Biennale, as well as a surprising number of museums and public or landscape works in China and the rest of the Asian continent. However, while these were sought-after projects, the leading works remained, unsurprisingly, residential projects.

From Rapidity to Specificity: Multiple Dimensions of Shenzhen's Architectural Development

韩爽 — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Shenzhen is China's first Special Economic Zone（SEZ), serving as a window for China's Reform and Opening-up and an emerging immigrant city. It has evolved into an influential, modern, and international metropolis, creating the world-renowned "Shenzhen Speed" and earning the reputation of the "City of Design." Architectural design stands as the most intuitive expression of Shenzhen's spirit of integration and innovation. Over the past decade (2015-2025), the development of urban architecture in Shenzhen has closely integrated with its open and inclusive urban character, ecological advantages of being nestled between mountains and the sea, and the local spirit of blending traditional culture with innovative technology, showcasing Shenzhen's unique charm and robust vitality across multiple dimensions.

Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum / Zaha Hadid Architects

Pilar Caballero — Tue, 06 May 2025 07:00:00 +0000

The Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum in the Guangming District of the city opens today. Showcasing the scientific endeavour, ground-breaking research, and future possibilities of technology, this new institution will explore the power of science and the technological advancements defining our future. Designed as a leading visitor destination of the Greater Bay Area — the world's largest metropolitan region with its population approaching 100 million residents — the museum will collaborate with the region's renowned tech industries, universities, schools and research centres to cultivate innovation, as well as present the ongoing inventiveness that places Shenzhen as a global leader in the development of new technologies.

Captial International Exhibition and Convention Center / Zaha Hadid Architects + BIAD

Hadir Al Koshta — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

CIECC expands Beijing's existing exhibition venue to over 611,000 sqm. Providing nine new exhibition halls, three reception halls, a conference center for 9,000 delegates and a hotel with 410 rooms. CIECC's modular fabrication and construction minimized the center's development time, investment and operational costs.

Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Center / Zaha Hadid Architects

Paula Pintos — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Designed as a hub of contemporary creativity within one of the world’s most dynamic regions, the Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre is at the heart of Aviation New City, an urbanization with a built area of 4.78 million sq. m housing 100,000 residents and incorporating new civic, cultural, academic and commercial infrastructure within Zhuhai’s Jinwan district. The Zhuhai Airport Railway, an extension of the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Railway, provides direct connections with Zhuhai’s city center and its airport, while the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge enables those in Shenzhen and Hong Kong to reach Zhuhai in less than an hour.

How Architecture Firms Are Using Generative Design Today

aec+tech — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 03:30:00 +0000

In May, aec+tech hosted an event on Clubhouse discussing how architects are using generative design in architecture firms today and towards the future. Five guest speakers from reputable architecture and tech start-ups —Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, Outer Labs, 7fold, and RK Architects— joined the session to share their experiences and insights.

M+ Museum / TFP Farrells + Herzog & de Meuron + Arup

Paula Pintos — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 02:00:00 +0000

Designed by a global team of the world-renowned architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup, the M+ building is set to become a new addition to the global arts and cultural landscape and a new international architectural icon. Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District on the Victoria Harbour waterfront, it provides a permanent space for M+, the first global museum of contemporary visual culture in Asia dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries.

Changsha Meixihu International Culture and Art Centre / Zaha Hadid Architects

Fernanda Castro — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 07:00:00 +0000

The new Culture & Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects incorporates a contemporary art museum (MICA), a 1,800-seat theatre with supporting facilities and a multipurpose hall. Its organic architectural language is defined by pedestrian routes that weave through the site to connect with neighbouring streets. Providing views of the adjacent Meixi Lake from the city and giving access to the parks and walking trails on the lake’s Festival Island, this ensemble of three separate cultural institutions creates external courtyards where pedestrian routes intersect for outdoor events and sculpture exhibitions.

Spotlight: Zaha Hadid

Patrick Lynch — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 03:30:00 +0000

In her lifetime, Pritzker prize-winning architect, fashion designer and artist Zaha Hadid (31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) became one of the most recognizable faces of our field. Revered and denounced in equal measure for the sensuous curved forms for which she was known, Hadid rose to prominence not solely through parametricism but by designing spaces to occupy geometries in new ways. Despite her tragically early death in March of 2016, the projects now being completed by her office without their original lead designer continue to push boundaries both creative and technological, while the fearless media presence she cultivated in recent decades has cemented her place in society as a woman who needs just one name: Zaha.

Skyscrapers of 2018: Soaring Beyond the Archetypal Crystal Tower

Vasundhra Aggarwal — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Either as singular outcroppings or as part of a bustling center, skyscrapers are neck-craning icons across major city centers in the world. A modern trope of extreme success and wealth, the skyscraper has become an architectural symbol for vibrant urban hubs and commercial powerhouses dominating cities like New York, Dubai, and Singapore.

22 of the World’s Greatest Architecture Projects Selected by Time Magazine

Niall Patrick Walsh — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Time Magazine’s list of the World’s Greatest Places 2018 celebrates 100 destinations to visit, stay, eat, and drink from around the world. Chosen by Time’s global team of editors and correspondents, the contenders have been evaluated on quality, originality, innovation, sustainability, and influence.

Eliel and Eero Saarinen: The Sweeping Influence of Architecture's Greatest Father-Son Duo

Tom Dobbins — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 09:30:00 +0000

It is rare for a father and son to share the same birthday. Even rarer is it for such a duo to work in the same profession; rarer still for them both to achieve international success in their respective careers. This, however, is the story of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architects whose combined portfolio tells of the development of modernist architectural thought in the United States. From Eliel’s Art Nouveau-inspired Finnish buildings and modernist urban planning to Eero’s International Style offices and neo-futurist structures, the father-son duo produced a matchless body of work culminating in two individual AIA Gold Medals.

Morpheus Hotel / Zaha Hadid Architects

María Francisca González — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 22:00:00 +0000

Asia’s most popular entertainment destination, Macau welcomed more than 32 million tourists in 2017, with visitor numbers increasing every year. Located in Cotai, Macau, City of Dreams is a leading integrated resort including casino, two theatres, shopping district, 20 restaurants and four hotels.

Chu Hai College Campus / Rocco Design Architects Associates

舒岳康 - SHU Yuekang — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 20:00:00 +0000

The new campus design signifies a highly linked & connected institution. It looks into the compact urban condition of Hong Kong itself for direct inspiration and epitomizes a miniature city, dense and connected. The spatial organization maximizes density by stacking multiple slab blocks of different programs vertically on top of each other over a podium of communal activities, including a number of lecture theatres and a gymnasium. A folded vertical Student Boulevard rises to form a 3-dimensional street network in the air that weaves and binds the different blocks and levels into a connected whole. From the Boulevard, students can gain free access to a series of sky gardens and roof decks of various scales on different levels: turfed green lawn sloping towards the sea, student plaza & mini café etc., all afforded with magnificent sea views and lively atmosphere.

5 Zaha Hadid Buildings Seen From Above

ArchDaily Team — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000

This week marks the first anniversary of the death of Zaha Hadid, the most successful and influential female architect in the architectural discipline. Born in Baghdad (Iraq) in 1950, Hadid became the first woman to receive the Pritzker Prize in 2004, and twelve years later received the gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Fluid Luminosity: The Architectural Lighting of Zaha Hadid

Thomas Schielke — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 06:00:00 +0000

Zaha Hadid's projects are remarkable not only for her innovative way of handling tangible materials but also for her imagination regarding the medium of light. Her theories of fragmentation and fluidity are now well-known design techniques which enabled her form-finding. However, her advances in using light to render her architecture have often been neglected—even though they became an essential element in revealing and interpreting her architecture. The three-decade transition from minimal light lines at her early Vitra Fire Station to the world's tallest atrium at the Leeza SOHO skyscraper, which collects an abundance of daylight, shows the remarkable development of Zaha Hadid’s luminous legacy.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza / Zaha Hadid Architects

Cristian Aguilar — Sun, 31 May 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Design and Construction Process