Fluid shadows

Zaha Hadid Architects, Burnham Pavilion in Chicago

Abstract

A new pavilion is to be added to the long list of ephemeral architecture designed by the Pritzker Award Winner Zaha Hadid, amongst which are the immensely celebrated Summer Pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery, the R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Pavilion in Barcelona and the touring Chanel Contemporary Art Container.

The construction of Burnham Pavilion takes its place amongst the several initiatives, which also include the adjacent installation by Ben Van Berkel, to celebrate the centenary of Plan of Chicago and concentrate public awareness once more on the problems of urban planning in the Windy City, also through involving the population directly. The plan, put together by Daniel H. Burnham and Edward Bennett in 1909, universally recognised as a milestone in urban planning, aimed at choices which even nowadays can be considered strategic, like the creation of an organic and extended system of parks, the development of natural resources, and the reorganisation of the transport network and the central downtown area.