  The Peak by Zaha Hadid, 1983, painting. Image taken from The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2004, Zaha Hadid Monograph.The Peak by Zaha Hadid, 1983, drawing. Image taken from The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2004,
Zaha Hadid Monograph. Hadid's ideas for the Peak in Hong Kong were competition winning, but were never built. The Peak was intended to be a sports club and spa. The structure was intended to explode in fragments from the mountainside (Prizker Monograph, 34). Unlike the solid singular structuars below, the Peak had no cohesive body. The drawing allows us to see how the planes of the walls, floors, and ceilings are atypical, meeting at odd anlgles, varying fromt the usual 90 degrees (Pritzker Monograph, 34). The floor and ceiling planes become confused in the space, fragmented in appearance as well as function, almost defying gravity. Tha painting gives us a perspective of how the Peak looked down on the rest of the city of Hong Kong, how it stood in stark contrast to other architecture, and how it used the mountainside almost as a launching pad. Its jagged edges are suiting to its surrounding rocks and ice. The Peak is properly named, as it seems to be a violent extension of the mountain itself. |
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