LA NOW PIERSCAPE
DIPLOMA
STUDIO  ZAHA HADID

UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS, VIENNA

The increasing urban densification and the resulting public demand for culture and leisure nowadays faces a higher diversity than ever before and will therefore start to define new typologies of space.

The new “pierscape” for Santa Monica questions the traditional idea of a pier as a simple surface above the sea level and is searching to develop a new definition of the pier as a contemporary landmark. The key question here is how to mediate between the cityscape and the waterfront.

The project’s various surfaces, differentiated spatial qualities and paths bring together the users, the sea and the bay and its unique natural conditions, intersecting them and giving them the chance to interact with each other’s unique behaviors and characteristics. Different flows emerge at various points with different gradients of intensity across the landscape and circulation networks.

Continuously looped paths, surfaces and a new pier program (science center, aquarium, contemporary art und performance spaces, leisure, sport, restaurants and commercial uses) connect the city’s urban qualities (pedestrian shopping zone, Palisades Park), the beach, the Ocean Front Walk and the old Santa Monica Pier.

 

• architecture
• urbanism