New district in Belgrade by Zaha Hadid

Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Area:       94,000 sqm
Design:    Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Function: Regenerate Historic Site
Cost:       200 million euro +

The Building complex located  only 500 meters away from the city center, next to Belgrade’s two rivers and the subtle monumentality of the Kalemegdan Castle. This mixed use project in the abandoned Beko textile factory in a style that directly reflects Zaha’s distinct style of Parametricism. Focused on urban regeneration, overlooking the junction of Sava and Danube Rivers.

Zaha Hadid Architect's Beko Masterplan aims to transform the currently inaccessible factory site into Belgrade’s next cultural hub. With the entire ground floor dedicated to civic space, the 94,000 square meter complex will feature residential, retail and commercial areas, along with a large scale convention center, five-star boutique hotel and an abundance of public destinations. Public, private, indoor and outdoor spaces are fused together by “flow lines”, as each space is meant to seamlessly connect to one another.

Zaha Hadid: “We are delighted to be working on the design for BEKO. The project focuses on urban regeneration of an important site at the intersection of key cultural artifacts. The masterplan follows the region’s strong modernist traditions and has applied new concepts and methods that examine and organize the programs of the site; defining a composition of buildings with the elegance of coherence that addresses the complexity of 21st century living patterns. The design for BEKO is embedded within the surrounding landscape of Belgrade’s cultural axis and incorporates essential public spaces. It is absolutely critical to invest in these public spaces that engage with the city. They are a vital component of a rich urban life and cityscape, uniting the city and tying the urban fabric together.”

More information about Zaha Hadid:

She is an Iraqi-British architect. She received the Pritzker Architecture Prize  in 2004—the first woman to do so—and the Stirling Prize  in 2010 and 2011. 

She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. There she met Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis, and Bernard Tschumi.

She worked for her former professors, Koolhaas and Zenghelis, at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; she became a partner in 1977. In 1980 she established her own London-based practice.

She has taught at prestigious universities around the world, including at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was the Kenzo Tange Professorship and the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Architecture.

She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria.