The first posthumous competition win for Zaha Hadid, who died unexpectedly in March, will be a 1.6 million-square-foot complex tech center in Moscow.
Set to open in 2019, her design for the headquarters of the largest bank in Russia, Sberbank Technopark, beat out competing firms for the project. The building will be in the Skolkovo Innovation Center, which is considered Russia's equivalent of Silicon Valley.
The massive complex will accommodate 10,000 to 12,000 people working in the bank's information tech and marketing departments. Construction is expected to start in late 2017 and will take two years to complete.
Before Hadid's death, the design was submitted by her firm, which will now facilitate the construction. Sberbank announced the firm's win on April 27.
Instead of a trendy open layout, it will feature clusters of labs and nooks that encourage researchers to work in small groups. The facade will feature gardens and a space to have coffee, make a call, or collaborate on projects.
The architects and bank officials hope that the relaxing environment will foster creativity, said the firm in a statement.
"The incredible belief in the power of invention attracted Zaha Hadid to the Russian avant-garde," Christos Passas, project director at Zaha Hadid Architects, said in the press release. "She realized how architecture can enrich creativity, how space itself can enhance dynamism, complexity, coherence, and continuity. These principles are embedded within the Sberbank Technopark design."
Hadid's first posthumous building, a maritime terminal, opened on April 25 in Salerno, Italy. 35 more of her works are still under construction or in the planning stages.
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