Zaha Hadid wins Design Museum Design of the Year Award 2014

for the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan

Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan has won the Design Museum Design of the Year Award 2014. Hadid is the first ever woman to win the top prize in the competition, now in its seventh year.

The Heydar Aliyev Center, which features Hadid’s signature elaborate curves and undulations, is also the first architectural project to be named Design of the Year – previous winners include the London 2012 Olympic Torch, the Plumen lightbulb, and the British government’s GOV.UK website.

2014’s Design of the Year winner was chosen by a distinguished panel of experts from over 70 nominated designs in the categories of Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. All of the nominated designs are on display in an exhibition at the Design Museum until 25 August 2014.

Zaha Hadid said: ‘We’re absolutely delighted to receive the Design of the Year Award. The surface of the Heydar Aliyev Centre’s external plaza rises and folds to define a sequence of public event spaces within; welcoming, embracing and directing visitors throughout the building. It’s an architectural landscape where concepts of seamless spatial flow are made real – creating a whole new kind of civic space for the city.’