Going With the Flow UPDATED

©Hélène Binet

With her design for the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, Zaha Hadid became the first female to win the London Design Museum's Design of the Year award, and her building became the first architecture entry to win (http://www.archdaily.com/522242/london-design-museum-s-design-of-the-year-heydar-aliyev-center-zaha-hadid-architects/).   "In historical Islamic architecture, rows, grids, or sequences of columns flow to infinity like trees in a forest, establishing non-hierarchical space," the architect explains. "Continuous calligraphic and ornamental patterns flow from carpets to walls, walls to ceilings, ceilings to domes, establishing seamless relationships and blurring distinctions between architectural elements and the ground they inhabit. Our intention was to relate to that historical understanding of architecture, not through the use of mimicry or a limiting adherence to the iconography of the past, but rather by developing a firmly contemporary interpretation, reflecting a more nuanced understanding" (story, lots of pix): http://www.archdaily.com/448774/heydar-aliyev-center-zaha-hadid-architects/
UPDATE ~ Apparently, this building ~ and some other buildings by Hadid ~ have raised ethical concerns. Human Rights Watch and protesters in Baku point to forced evictions to make way for the Center, claiming that, in all, 250 homes had been razed. Hadid's company said the contractor on that project was internationally accredited: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/30/zaha-hadid-architecture