Zaha Hadid competition win

UK-based Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition to design a new library and learning centre at the University of Economics & Business in Vienna, Austria.

The five storey complex will be the centrepiece of the university’s new campus. It will include a language laboratory, tutorial rooms, administration offices, student centre, book shop, cafeteria, clubrooms and event space.

Describing the design, a spokesman said, “The new library and learning centre rises as a polygonal block from the centre of the new university campus. The design takes the form of a cube with both inclined and straight edges. The straight lines of the building’s exterior separate as they move inward, becoming curvilinear and fluid, generating a free-formed interior canyon that serves as the central public plaza.

“All the other facilities are housed within a single volume that also divides, becoming two separate ribbons that wind around each other to enclose this glazed gathering space.”