One piece of architecture by Zaha Hadid that might be recognizable to many people is the London Aquatics Centre, home of the 2012 London Olympic Games swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming events.

The building holds two 50-meter pools and a 25-meter diving pool. It cost 269 million euros to build and was finished in 2011. Zaha Hadid won the bid to design this building in 2004, before London had won the bid to host the Olympics. Two years after the Summer Olympics, the building opened to the public. I like the exterior look of the building because both sides of the building are made to look like waves.

The Guangzhou Opera House is located in China and opened in 2010 after Zaha Hadid had won a worldwide competition to design the opera house.

The Guangzhou Opera House is one of the three biggest of its kind in the entire country. The opera house hold over 1,800 people and cost somewhere around $200 million to complete. I like this building that Hadid created because it reminds me of many of her other designs. It has a very unique and modern exterior.

The JS Bach Chamber Music Hall was a temporary piece of architecture built for the Manchester International Festival in 2009.  The temporary music hall was located in the Manchester Art Gallery building and was a site where soloists were able to play for the audience.

The structure was made up of suspended ribbon with acoustic panels inside that allowed the audience to better hear the music being played. I liked this Zaha Hadid design because it is so different than what I would expect a music hall to look like, even a temporary one.

The BMW Central Building is a building that connects the three production sheds to one another in Leipzig, Germany. The Central Building is 270,000 square feet and cost $60 million to complete. The project was started in 2003 and completed in 2005.

The BMW Central Building holds BMW offices, cafeteria, public relations, administration, and meeting rooms. It is a very functional building because it connects all three production areas together, making it easier for workers to communicate with one another. I like this building for the modern architectural look that Zaha Hadid created throughout both the outside and inside of the building.

The Phaeno Science Center is an interactive science center based in Wolfsburg, Germany. Zaha Hadid was the architect who won the design competition in 2000 to design the center. The project was completed in 2005 and holds more than 200 interactive exhibits. The project cost a total of 79,000,000 euros.

I find this building interesting for many reasons. I like the way the design of the building flows into the ground. The architecture makes it look like there is no difference from the concrete that forms the building and the concrete that forms the ground.

Built in 2003 in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, the Contemporary Arts Center holds contemporary artwork.

This was the first American project by Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born British architect. The building, 80,000 square feet in total holds many different pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures, and photographs in the 7 story building. The project cost a total of $34 million and took around two years to complete.

I found this piece of architecture interesting because it looks like a simple architectural design from the outside. I think Hadid did a good job in making the building look modern yet simple from the exterior.

In Germany, I got to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the castle that inspired the famous Cinderella castle.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Neuschwanstein_castle.jpg

The Neuschwanstein Castle has several tall towers which make it look like a typical castle. Although I wasn’t able to go inside the castle, the exterior architecture itself was satisfying enough to look at. So much detail went into every single area of the exterior of the castle. From the paintings on the outside to carvings in the limestone, each piece of art was full of detail and fit in well with the rest of the castle exterior design.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Schloss_Neuschwanstein_IMG_6891.JPG

While in Washington D.C., I had the opportunity to visit the United States Capitol. I was intrigued by the architecture on the outside of the building. The Corinthian columns on the outside of the building had so much detail put into every single column.

https://www.aoc.gov/capitol-buildings/flags-over-east-and-west-central-fronts-capitol

https://www.aoc.gov/sites/default/files/images/news/6082053261_0ccedef33d_b.jpg

While I was pretty familiar with the look of the Capitol building from the outside, I hadn’t seen many pictures of the inside of the building. Each room was walked through had so much detail. Many of the rooms that had a dome-shaped ceiling either had some sort of painting or special design. The architecture inside the Capitol building was like nothing I had ever seen in person before. It was a great experience to be able to see the final product of all the hard work that went into the making of the United States Capitol.

One summer, I was able to travel to Washington D.C. While I was there, I was able to visit the National Air and Space Museum. It was a fantastic sight to visit with many different attractions throughout the large building.

https://washington-org.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/smothsonian-air-space-museum-exterior-credit-eric-long.jpg

The architecture of the outside of the building was nothing extraordinary, but the inside was filled with plane and rocket ship models from different generations. I liked how the building was set up in the way of going to and from each floor. Rather than have an enclosed staircase, there were ramps and stairs out in the open, allowing visitors to be able to continue to look at the displays on their way up or down. There were many areas to explore and see in the big building.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/National_Air_and_Space_Museum_Entrance.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Notre_Dame_dalla_Senna.jpg

When I was a kid, I got the opportunity to go to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I fell in love with the architecture inside and outside. The tiny details that went into this building was incredible, especially on the outside of the cathedral. Small statues are placed in multiple places on the outside, representing so much history.

The stained glass windows looked timeless. The rose window was probably my favorite part. Each small circle that made up the entire rose window had small snapshots of different stories from the Bible.

https://enthusiastical.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/dsc01659de.jpg

I also enjoyed the arches inside of the Notre Dame. Each arch had great detail and together the arches fit great with the giant columns.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Cathedrale_Notre-Dame_de_Paris_nef_nouvelles_cloches.jpg