Skip to content

Zaha Hadid Architects

Your Starred Items

Studio

Archive Search
Studio
Your Starred Items
Searching. Please Wait...

  • Filters

  • Filters

  • Filters

  • Filters

  • Awards
  • People
  • Publications
  • Videos
  • Careers

News

Glasgow listed as one of the ‘52 Places to Go in 2018’ by the New York Times

“This historic city, known for its Art Nouveau flourishes, also has a blossoming modern side, with daring new buildings, bars, restaurants and galleries… Even more remarkable is the Riverside Museum, a Zaha Hadid construction from 2011 with a roof that resembles waves of water, a fitting motif considering the waterside location.” New York Times

The New Yorker magazine explained at the Riverside Museum’s opening in 2011:

“The building is visually striking, and inside it yields a space that is both dramatic and functional—with the capaciousness of a warehouse but also a sense of movement. Because of the S bends of the building, you don’t see the whole thing when you come in. Instead, the building reveals itself to you as you move through it and experience its curves, emphasized by long ribbons of lighting in the ceiling, which follow the twisting corrugations of the roof. The glass walls at either end—one faces a riverfront promenade, the other a parking lot—bring in plenty of daylight, and through the one facing the river you can see a huge nineteenth-century sailing ship permanently anchored next to the museum.

“There is something sentimental at the heart of any museum whose reason for being is to celebrate the affection we feel for objects that were once part of everyday life, but the Riverside Museum has a boldness that transcends coy nostalgia. This is powerful architecture built to house powerful things. Its easy, flowing quality reminds you that the purpose of this museum is to give these streetcars and fire engines new life in a post-industrial world, in which they are honored rather than used. You begin to understand what Hadid was trying to do when you look across the river to the lone remaining shipyard, where amid the cranes and drydocks stands a huge metal shed with a zigzagging roof, used for framing hulls. She took the shed as a starting point, but any architect with a pair of eyes could have done that. What Hadid saw was that, in echoing the shed, it was possible to arrive at a perfect metaphor for the evolution of an old industrial city like Glasgow. The city has gone from being a place where people labor at making things to a place where people come at their leisure to be entertained; Hadid has taken something hard, tough, and workaday and made it fluid and inviting.” 

Photo by Alan McAteer

New York Times: ’52 Places to Go in 2018’ 

New York Times: ’36 Hours in Glasgow’ 

New Yorker: ‘A flamboyant architect’s quieter side’