Hong Kong Design Institute examines the tall building typology through the eyes of Zaha Hadid Architects

A close inspection at one of the most innovative approaches to tall building design in architecture went on view at the Hong Kong Design Institute after “Zaha Hadid Architects: Vertical Urbanism” opened to the public last Wednesday. 

By utilizing a wide array of various forms of media, including technical drawings, models, renderings, and VR experiences, the show’s curators arranged a three-pronged exhibition that highlights the work of the firm’s five-year-old design education and research group ZHA CODE, explores their considerable regional output, including the forthcoming 36-story Henderson development for the central business district of Hong Kong, and, importantly, showcases ZHA’s innovations in supertall building and verticality across the world. 

HKDI says the overall goal is to provide viewers with an up-close inspection of the firm’s approaches to the development of interconnected and community-oriented space within high-density urban environments, something director Patrik Schumacher says sits at the core of any future projects in cities like Hong Kong.

“The agenda of communicative intensification within and between densely spaced high-rise structures, via the combined strategies of clustering, bridges and atria, will articulate a new paradigm for the design of high-rise urbanism,” the architect shared in an essay accompanying the exhibition. 

“On this basis, the tower typology will receive a new lease of life in the central metropolitan societies, where the desire for connectivity drives urban density,” Schumacher continued. “In the future, even more than is evident already now, this super-dense build up will be a mixed-use build up, where multiple life-processes intersect. These life-processes need to be ordered in intricate ways that nevertheless remain legible and thereby empowering.”

The exhibition is part of the gallery’s yearlong #EssenceofDesign initiative and will remain on view both online and in-person until April 3rd. A lecture series and panel discussions featuring Schumacher and other architects will also be held concurrently through the end of March. The exhibition can be viewed in its entirety by following the link here.