Zaha Hadid Architects

Achieving Architectural Expression to Complement
the Iconic Neue Nationalgalerie Using HyperWorks

SUCCESS STORY: smart City
Zaha Hadid Architects is an international architectural design firm with its main office basedin London, UK. With a global presence in 44 countries, they create iconic transformative andand cultural architecture that harmonizes with their surroundings.
Zaha Hadid’s design atelier, founded in 1979, was an early pioneer and adopter of key
necessities of innovation: theoretical guidance, systemic knowledge generation andcollaborative design. The Computation and Design research group (co|de) of the company
was an effort initiated in 2007, in line with the preceding pioneering efforts of the company.
The co|de team endeavours to develop early-design methods that enable a directed searchfor physically, economically and ergonomically feasible solutions within a vast universe ofarchitectural possibilities enabled by digital design and construction methods.

Collaborative Innovation to Conceptualize Integration
with an Architectural Icon
In 1968, Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie, part of the National Gallery of the Berlin
State Museums, took a distinct step forward by introducing radical new concepts and refinedstructural detailing. For a competition launched in 2015 for the Museum of the 20th Century,
Zaha Hadid Architects re-invented a similarly radical approach by applying new advances intechnology to generate structural and architectural expression.
Zaha Hadid architects with the (co|de) team in London first became familiar with theAltair HyperWorks® platform in 2015 following a lecture given by Dr. Luca Frattari at theArchitectural Asociation (AA) . With Altair’s assistance, they familiarized themselves withthe user interface, creating a plug-in for their design tool, enabling topology optimization.
Altair HyperMesh™ was used for finite element pre-processing mesh generation, with Altair
HyperView™ providing post-processing and visualization solutions. Structural analysis
solver Altair OptiStruct™ provided advanced analysis and optimization algorithms, forming

ArchitectZaha Hadid Architects

DesignPatrik Schumacher

Design Team
Johannes Hoffmann, Paulo Flores,
Gerhild Orthacker, Shajay Bhooshan,
Henry Louth, Thomas Frings, Yun Zhang,
Aiste Dzikaraite, Paul Bart, Sven TorresConsultants• GROSS.MAX. Ltd.
• Panta Ingenieure GmbH – Tragwerksplanung• HHP West Beratende Ingenieure GmbH Brandschutzsachverständige• Werner Sobek Stuttgart GmbH –Fassadenplanung/TGA

5M

17 M

18 M

5.5 M
5M

17 M
16.5 M
28 M
28 M
16.5 M

Pushing the Boundaries with Simulation

5.5 M

the basis for the development of innovative, lightweight and structurally efficient designs.
“Once we have the optimization results back from HyperWorks, the next process of design isbased on that. The HyperWorks results are like a base and we work on top of that with thedesign language actually developed from those results. It’s like a map we use as a blueprint– recreating the geometry so its easier to fabricate,” said Vishu Bhooshan, designer at Zaha
Hadid Architects and member of the Computation and Design (co|de) group.

For the 3-week period of the competition, the various teams focused on different aspects
of proposal planning. Precursor studies of the famous Dom-Ino House designed by notedarchitect Le Corbusier provided the conceptual design basis. Applying the same idea ona larger scale, with loading leveraged from the historical structure, the architects applied
the forces for optimization of the slab and columns while keeping the grid of the column
the same. Following design principles to reduce weight, structurally inform the design andfabrication, HyperWorks was used to optimize the material usage and rationalize it to befabricated using hot wire cutting.
Zaha Hadid’s proposal for the competition successfully achieves architectural expressionthat creates coherent dialogue with the Neue National Gallery, addressing the importanceof the prestigious site by recognizing the distinct features of its existing surrounding context.
The design concept synthesizes a flexible, efficient and functional framework with spatialorganization that incorporates a glazed perimeter resulting in a unique, transparent space
conducive to social interaction with display and production of coherent, contemporary art.
The proposed elevations can be interpreted as an evolution of the Neue National Gallery’s
lightweight appearance which, by maintaining similar exterior structural proportions withopen corners, defines the proposal as a recognizable landmark that responds, respects andunderstands its presence on such a unique site. In the interior, a second row of perimetercolumns demarcates a gallery and exhibition zones that describe clear organization ofrational exhibition spaces. The galleries articulate a logical composition of interior circulationand vistas into other galleries.

Lightest Possible Design Solution: Simplicity Presenting Sophisticated Style
The simplicity of the building’s form is integrated with a sophisticated translation of its
structural analysis and other parameters. The geometric patterning optimizes material
consumption by eliminating any material redundancies within prescribed performancetargets, reducing the weight of the concrete structure through the generation of efficient
rib patterns that follows the same structural logic of natural organisms; resulting in thelightest possible design solution.
The proposal integrates this geometric expression of structural forces with advanced
fabrication systems and technologies to create efficient and organic structural forms oflayered floors and roof which balance lightness and movement within the overall built form.

Future Possibilities
While the proposal was not selected as one of the wining entries, its architectural principles
are directly linked with the design’s structural arrangement as a result of improved
collaboration with Altair’s state of the art simulation technology, allowing full flexibilityof the galleries’ arrangement that could be adaptable for future curation and display ofart or changing programs and visitor conditions while maintaining a clear and uniqueexterior expression.

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