Through detailed exploration of two projects currently under construction, the exhibition outlines the innovations and applications developed by the practice’s in-house computation and design research team (CODE).  CODE’s research and development harnesses the latent opportunities within the inter-disciplinary collaboration of computationally literate architects, engineers and emerging digital manufacturing methods; establishing a collective research culture throughout Zaha Hadid Architects that enables many diverse talents and innovative ideas to feed into each other.

CODE’s research applications determined the airflow patterns that define the shapes and spaces of the Mathematics Gallery at the Science Museum, which were a result of a fluid exchange of means, methods and models across disciplines and the lineage of innovative, tensile fabric structures that the office has undertaken in the past. These galleries outline the development and continued advancements of this research and their application throughout Zaha Hadid Architects’ body of work. 

“The developments that computing has brought to architecture are incredible, enabling an intensification of relationships and greater precision – both internally within the buildings as well as externally with their context. It took me twenty years to convince people to do everything in 3D, with an army of people trying to draw the most difficult perspectives, and now everyone works in 3D on the computer – but they think a plan is a horizontal section, but it’s not. The plan really needs organization via a diagram,” Zaha Hadid has explained. 

Adriano Berengo, president of Fondazione Berengo said, “Visitors to the exhibition will have a greater understanding of Zaha Hadid’s pioneering vision that redefined architecture and design for the 21st century and captured imaginations across the globe. Although I work in the art world and Dame Zaha Hadid's excellence was architecture, her work is also imbued with art, that patina that makes everything eternal, including the creator herself."

Falconeri will be continuing its partnership with Fondazione Berengo supporting creativity and innovation in the arts as the major sponsor of the exhibition and will host a performance in tribute to Zaha Hadid on 25 May at Palazzo Franchetti by soloist Anna Tikhomirova of the Bolshoi Ballet. Falconeri said, “We maintain our commitment to the arts and Zaha Hadid’s work is fantastically inventive in her search for new and unexpected solutions.”

In her 2011 conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Galleries, Zaha Hadid stated, “I know from my experience that without research and experimentation not much can be discovered. With experimentation, you think you’re going to find out one thing, but you actually discover something else. That’s what I think is really exciting. You discover much more than you bargain for. I think there should be no end to experimentation.”

Zaha Hadid exhibition at the Palazzo Franchetti
Campo Santo Stefano, Venice, Italy
27 May – 27 November 2016

Press Preview: 10am-4pm Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Vernissage: 10am-3pm Thursday, 26 May 2016
Public Opening Times: 10am-6pm everyday (entry 10 Euros, group / reduced rates available)

To download high resolution images of work exhibited and further information, please use this link:  Zaha Hadid_Exhibition_Venice 2016