Inaugural exhibition. Changsha Meixihu International Culture and Art Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects
05/12/2019.
[Changsha Shi] China
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Project description by Zaha Hadid Architects
The first exhibition at MICA, the new art museum of Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Arts Centre, is now open.
‘Flowing Eternity’ is an immersive exhibition by MOTSE, a group of 40 artists and scientists based in Shenzhen whose collaborative, interactive works use innovative technologies in new media to explore contemporary culture.
The new Culture & Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects incorporates a contemporary art museum (MICA), an 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.
The largest and most versatile cultural centre in Hunan province, the Culture & Arts Centre connects directly with its station on Line 2 of Changsha’s new Metro System.
Located on historic trade routes through China, the city of Changsha’s traditions as an important centre of communications continues as one of the country’s leading media hubs with the centre’s Grand Theatre hosting a popular programme of performances and television productions.
Designed for the widest variety of performing arts, the Grand Theatre provides all front-of-house functions in sculpted lobbies, bars and hospitality suites, as well as the necessary ancillary functions including administration offices, rehearsal studios, backstage logistics, wardrobe and dressing rooms.
With eight juxtaposed exhibition galleries totalling 10,000m² centred around an atrium for large-scale installations and events, the MICA art museum also includes dedicated spaces for community workshops, a lecture theatre, café and museum shop.
The Small Theatre is characterized by its flexibility. This multipurpose hall with a capacity of 500 seats can be transformed to different configurations to accommodate a broad range of functions and performances that span from small plays, fashion shows and music performances to banquets and commercial events.
Totalling 115,000m², these three civic institutions are uniquely defined and separate, yet complement each other with different opening times creating vitality throughout the day and evening. The theatre becomes active as the art museum begins to conclude its day-time operations, whilst the variety of events in the smaller theatre ensure it will be used at all times.
Zaha Hadid, (Bagdad, 31 October 1950 – Miami, 31 March 2016) founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize (considered to be the Nobel Prize of architecture) in 2004 and is internationally known for both her theoretical and academic work.
Each of her dynamic and innovative projects builds on over thirty years of revolutionary exploration and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design. Hadid’s interest lies in the rigorous interface between architecture, landscape and geology as her practice integrates natural topography and human-made systems, leading to experimentation with cutting-edge technologies. Such a process often results in unexpected and dynamic architectural forms.
Education: Hadid studied architecture at the Architectural Association from 1972 and was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977.
Teaching: She became a partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at the AA until 1987. Since then she has held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois, School of Architecture, Chicago; guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg; the Knolton School of Architecture, Ohio and the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and Commander of the British Empire, 2002. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Awards: Zaha Hadid’s work of the past 30 years was the subject of critically-acclaimed retrospective exhibitions at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2006, London’s Design Museum in 2007 and the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy in 2009. Her recently completed projects include the MAXXI Museum in Rome; which won the Stirling award in 2010. Hadid’s outstanding contribution to the architectural profession continues to be acknowledged by the most world’s most respected institutions. She received the prestigious ‘Praemium Imperiale’ from the Japan Art Association in 2009, and in 2010, the Stirling Prize – one of architecture’s highest accolades – from the Royal Institute of British Architects. Other recent awards include UNESCO naming Hadid as an ‘Artist for Peace’ at a ceremony in their Paris headquarters last year. Also in 2010, the Republic of France named Hadid as ‘Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in recognition of her services to architecture, and TIME magazine included her in their 2010 list of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’. This year’s ‘Time 100’ is divided into four categories: Leaders, Thinkers, Artists and Heroes – with Hadid ranking top of the Thinkers category.