Zaha Hadid Turns From Potato Chips to AC Vents for Inspiration

This week, Zaha Hadid got the go-ahead to begin constructing her latest big building: The Eli and Edyth Broad Museum, on the campus of Michigan State Unversity. To mark the news, they've just released a nice fly-through animation of the building:

As you can tell, the building is a bit of a departure for Hadid. Where many of her big recent works look like Pringles potato chips, this one looks exactly like a pile of air conditioning vents. It works like one too: The facade's metal and glass "pleats" will be adjustable, allowing museum staff to adjust them for lighting levels. Inside, the pleat motif will carry over, creating patterns of overlapping zig-zags.

Hadid won the job in 2007, in an international competition that pitted her up against Thom Mayne, of Morphosis, and Wolf Prix, of Coop Himmelb(l)au.

The Broads have donated $18.5 million to the construction of the museum, and construction is slated to begin next March and last for two years. The grand opening will be in 2012--precisely when her Aquatic Olympic Stadium will be drawing billions of eye balls during the 2012 London Olympics.

[Via Chicago Tribune]