Zaha Hadid 'aura' concept of harmonic proportion; exhibition Biennale 2008

Zaha Hadid's magical concept is again being shown in Venice, Italy. Working with Patrik Schumacher, this installataion are two sculptures 'aura-S and 'aura-L' shown inside two rooms, as a part of Biennale 2008 exhibition. The two sculpture seems to contain the kind of irregular geometry often used by Zaha Hadid in her works. From different perspectives, this installation give different impression. This geometry is somehow organic forms.

 Aura L

Aura S

When explaining about Zaha Hadid, we can not explain it with our own words, instead, let's read what is written in text by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Text by Zaha Hadid Architects (copied from designboom):

'aura' is an experiment in translating villa foscari’s palladian design, which relies on a defi nite set of harmonic
proportions, into a contemporary space whose elegance and dynamism is generated through a process defined
by a non-linear set of rules elicited from palladio’s theories. since the renaissance architects tried to embed in
their compositions the musical concept of harmony and the mathematical relations that un-derlie notes, intervals
and chords while producing a sound.

palladio used this concept of harmonic proportion to link his villa’s rooms, aiming for a global system of harmony.
the process of generating aura’s form brings these linear proportions into their musical meaning. each of them
corresponds to a musical harmonic that in turn can be described as a frequency wave: a half is an octave interval,
four thirds is a fourth and so on. by overlapping all the frequency curves generated from villa malcontenta’s
proportional system and progressively changing them with mathematical algorithms it is possible to define a
genotypic elementary space whose form contains in its DNA the whole Palladian set of rules.

at the same time the parametric nature of the process makes the form able to adapt itself to multiple environments
within the villa, keeping track of every single variation or 'phenotype'. the result is a new and more complex order
that retains at the same time classical proportions but is not enclosed in a rigid and unique solution. in fact, like in
lorentz attractor’s equation, every small change in the value of parameters will result in a different morphological
configuration that will keep the same order but with altered proportions. this dynamic of differentiation helps in
giving to the whole installation a spatial relationship whilst keeping every single space independent. this gives
enough flexibility to create different scenarios within the villa and to configure a set of multiple relationships
between two, three or four rooms. aura‘s design gives form to an ethereal space that doesn’t collide with the beauty
and harmony of palladian interiors nor does it hide the perception of its frescoes. its proportions in plan are part of
villa malcontenta’s harmonic system and allows to experience its spaces both walking through and circulating around.

this puts in context the humanistic anthropocentric vision of architecture with contemporary spacial values tending
to emphasize the skin, the interface, the environment rather than the interior. aura doesn’t claim to reinvent palladian
space nor to perform as a tool for reading hidden meanings through its gaps. its stream of thin elongated curves
painted in a glossy reflecting finish catches the atmosphere and the colours of villa malcontenta bridging the past
with the future.






project info
design: zaha hadid and patrik schumacher
design team: fulvio wirz and mariagrazia lanza

Picture and reference: designboom

We also suggest you watch this youtube graphic video by 85studio, an interesting graphic animation.