Zaha Hadid Architects Mathematics: The Winton Gallery London

TheWinton Gallery, a new gallery in the London Science Museum, is all about a subject people instinctively either love or hate: mathematics. Designed byZaha Hadid Architectsand opened on December 8, 2016, the gallery aims to change the minds of visitors who hate math and encourage them to look at the role ofmathematicsin everyday life in a new way.

It is a strange coincidence that the studio’s first permanent public exhibition project, also its first project completed in the UK after the Iraqi architect’s premature death, should focus precisely onthe relationship between architecture, mathematics and geometrywhich was always the foundation ofZaha Hadid’s projects as an architect with a degree in mathematics.
The gallery exhibits works and inventions of the last four centuries which demonstrate the fundamental contribution the science of mathematics has made to improvement of all human activities and of so many aspects of our everyday lives. In the centre of the gallery is theHandley Page Gugnunc, an experimental plane built in 1929 which was of essential importance for research into the safety of flight and the evolution of the study of aerodynamics. The plane incarnates the main theme of the gallery, which is how the science of mathematics has helped solve real-world problems.Zaha Hadid’s project is inspired by the geometric shapes created by air flows striking an airplane in flight, developed using parametric and fluid dynamics simulation software to determine the positions of the display cases and of the three-dimensional curved surfaces of the central structure.A concrete example of how mathematics can influence and determine the environment we live in.

ZHA Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Science Museum Design AnimationfromZaha Hadid ArchitectsonVimeo.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: London, UK

Images courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects photo by Luke Hayes

www.zaha-hadid.com
sciencemuseum.org.uk

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