{"id":7847,"date":"2026-05-05T10:55:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=7847"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:14:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:14:43","slug":"heydar-aliyev-centre-is-the-ultimate-expression-of-parametricisms-seamless-fluidity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/heydar-aliyev-centre-is-the-ultimate-expression-of-parametricisms-seamless-fluidity\/","title":{"rendered":"Heydar Aliyev Centre is the ultimate expression of parametricism’s “seamless fluidity”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heydar<\/div>\n

Our parametricism<\/a> series launches with a look at the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku<\/a>, Azerbaijan. Designed by Zaha Hadid<\/a>, the project was described by the architect as the “closest thing” to translating her theoretical visions into a built reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Completed by Zaha Hadid Architects<\/a> in 2012, the 57,000-square-metre centre contains a 1,000-seat auditorium alongside exhibition and conference spaces, all enveloped by a flowing roof designed to appear as a seamless extension of the surrounding plaza.<\/p>\n

\"Heydar
The Heydar Aliyev Centre is one of the clearest examples of parametricism<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Heydar Aliyev Centre’s futuristic form saw it become a poster project for the emergent style of parametricism, coined in 2008 by Patrik Schumacher<\/a> \u2013 then a partner and today principal at Zaha Hadid Architects.<\/p>\n

It represented an era in which Hadid’s rapidly growing studio cast off its reputation for “unbuildable” designs, with increasingly complex forms made possible through parametric software and \u2013 in this instance \u2013 the big budgets of oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

\"Theatre
It was designed to emerge from a plaza in Baku<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the centre became the first architectural project to be named Design of the Year by London’s Design Museum in 2014<\/a>, the jury described it as the “pinnacle moment” in Hadid’s career, with juror Piers Gogh calling it “as pure and sexy as Marilyn’s blown skirt”.<\/p>\n

In her acceptance speech, Hadid said “it was always my dream to design and build the theoretical project, and that was the closest thing to achieving that”.<\/p>\n

\"Zaha
It stands at the top of a sloped plaza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zaha Hadid Architects was awarded the Heydar Aliyev Centre project in 2007 following an international competition organised by the Azerbaijani government, which formed part of an extensive construction boom in Baku driven by the country’s oil and gas revenues.<\/p>\n

The centre sits alongside Heydar Aliyev Avenue, between Baku’s city centre and Heydar Aliyev Airport, all named after the Soviet party boss and subsequent president of the post-Soviet republic until 2003.<\/p>\n

Besides its auditorium, the initial programme of the Heydar Aliyev Centre was relatively vague, with its value lying not in its function but in its role as a symbol of a modern, progressive Azerbaijan under the leadership of Heydar’s son and current president Ilham Aliyev.<\/p>\n

\"Heydar
The building was named Design of the Year by London’s Design Museum in 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was this message that the centre’s fluid design sought to underscore, with Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu, a former associate at Zaha Hadid Architects who led on the project, describing it as an attempt to “soften” Baku’s Soviet-era urbanism.<\/p>\n

“When you look at Soviet era [architecture in Azerbaijan], it’s more like monumental internalised authoritarian buildings,” he told Dezeen in a 2014 interview.<\/a> “So, this, we wanted to use this building as an opportunity to soften it up and totally depart from that.”<\/p>\n