Pierre Vives Montpellier, Zaha Hadid Building Images, Project, Design, Herault
Pierresvives Montpellier Building by Zaha Hadid
Contemporary French Architecture, Hérault design by Zaha Hadid Architects
13 + 12 Sep 2012
Pierresvives Montpellier Building
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
Inauguration of Zaha Hadid’s first building in France
photo © Hélène Binet
Montpellier, September 12th, 2012 – The Conseil Général of Hérault announces the inauguration of the first public building in France designed by Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi British architect, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2004.
Montpellier Zaha Hadid
pierresvives, the “Cité des Savoirs et des Sports pour tous” will be inaugurated on Thursday September 13th, in the presence of André Vezinhet, President of Conseil Général of Herault, and Zaha Hadid.
photos © Hélène Binet
Situated in Montpellier, pierresvives building embodies a distinctly contemporary vision of culture and accessibilty.
For the Département of Hérault, whose capital, Montpellier, has recently been named one of the New York Times’ “Best Places to visit in 2012”, the commissioner and the architect have planned to concentrate three civic institutions in a single location: the public archives, a multimedia library and Hérault Sport.
photos © Hélène Binet
Following the call for submissions launched by Département of Hérault in 2002, Zaha Hadid understood at once the specific requirements of the endeavour, and her submission was quickly singled out. Her futuristic structure, a sprawling edifice of swirly white concrete layers and green-tinted glass, takes on the architectural challenge of accommodating an ever-increasing public whilst ensuring the conservation of valuable historical archives.
Montpellier is France’s eighth-largest and most dynamic city, more specifically in terms of new technologies and the pharmacy industry.
photos © Hélène Binet
Pierresvives has been conceived as an innovative cultural offer, to meet the needs of the area’s significant economic growth and increasing population of over 1,000 inhabitants per month. The total population of the Départment de l’Hérault has stood at 1 million since 2006.
photos © Hélène Binet
Prominent attendees of the inauguration include Leïla Shahid, General Delegate of Palestine to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg,to whom Zaha Hadid was first introduced in Montpellier, by André Vézinhet, president of the Conseil Général of Hérault.
Pierres Vives Montpellier Building images / information received 120912
Pierrevives Montpellier, France – new photos + building news – 13 Sep 2012
Zaha Hadid Architects
photo : Iwan Baan
“If I named this building after a quote from one of the greatest authors of Humanism, it is because public investment is not only a response to the needs of the moment, in this instance re-housing the archives and multimedia library of Hérault, but also a vision for the future of public service and urban planning.”
pierresvives Montpellier : Technical Information re this Zaha Hadid building
30 Aug + 7 Jun 2012
Pierresvives Montpellier
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
Inauguration of Zaha Hadid’s innovative new building on September 13th, 2012
The first illumination of the building will be at 10pm.
Priztker Prize winner in 2004, the architect Zaha Hadid, and André Vezinhet, Head of the French Département of Hérault, will inaugurate on September 13th 2012 a remarkable new building: pierrevives.
photo © Hélène Binet
Pierresvives is situated in Montpellier, France’s eighth-largest and most dynamic city. It has been conceived as an innovative cultural offer, to meet the needs of the area’s significant economic growth and increasing population of over 1,000 inhabitants per month.
Pierresvives building thus embodies a distinctly contemporary vision of culture and public access, actively contributing to the area’s growing reputation as a paradise for contemporary architecture. Hadid’s building will be the cornerstone of the pierresvives ecodistrict whose construction will take place over the coming years.
With this inauguration, pierresvives becomes the third project built by the now internationally acclaimed Anglo-Iraqi architect in France, after the car park and Terminus Hœnheim-North in Strasbourg and the CMA/CGM Tower in Marseille.
Pierres Vives Montpellier Building images / information received 070612
2 Oct 2006
Pierres Vives Building Montpellier
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
The ‘’Pierres Vives building’’of the Department of Herault in Montpellier, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects is due to start on site at the end of this year.
The building is a unique combination of three civic institutions – the archives, the library and the sports department – within a single envelope.
Given the contained programs, the spectacular design is inspired by the idea of a ‘tree of knowledge’ as an organizational diagram. The archive is located at the solid base of the trunk, followed by the slightly more porous library, with the sports department and its offices on top where the trunk bifurcates and becomes much lighter.
These various parts of this “cite administrative” share several functions at the heart of the building, with auditorium and meeting rooms combining in a huge cantilever canopy above the main entrance. The branches projecting off the main trunk on ground floor, articulate the entrances into the various institutions. All the public entrances are located on the western side of the building; whilst the service entrances for staff and loading bays are on the eastern side. In this way the tree-trunk analogy is exploited to organise and articulate the complexity of the overall “cite administrative”.
Zaha Hadid consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Her work experiments with new spatial concepts ranging widely from urban master planning to products, interiors, and furniture.
She is best known for her seminal built works – the Vitra Fire Station in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany (1993); the Hoenheim Nord Terminus in Strasbourg, France (2001); the Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck, Austria (2002); the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, USA (2003); the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany; the Hotel Puerta America interiors in Madrid, Spain; the Ordrupgaard Museum extension in Copenhagen and the Phaeno Science Centre in Germany (all 2005).
Pierres Vives – Building Information
Client: Département de l’Hérault
Client representative: Hérault Aménagement
Architectural design: Zaha Hadid Architects
Project architect: Stephane Hof
Pierres Vives Building images / information from Zaha Hadid
Location: Montpellier, France
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