Venue

Haydar Aliyev Center

The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center is a cultural center named after the former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev; the project houses a conference hall, library, and museum; located close to the center of the city, it is part of a larger project, aiming the development of the Baku’s cultural and intellectual life.

The cultural project extends to the surroundings as well; the space encircling the building is designated for residential, offices, a hotel and commercial center, and the space between them is meant to become a Cultural Plaza, a place people would gladly visit and be attracted to.

“It is difficult in general to build something that extraordinary in a remote country where even very basic tools must be imported sometimes.”

Thomas Winterstetter, Werner Sobek

“We focused, for example, on easy-to-clean external cladding materials because of the heavy air pollution… There are oil refineries and such nearby, and the cladding is white. That’s how glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) came up, which is dirt-repellent itself. In general, all building systems are chosen to have high durability and a long lifetime and low maintenance efforts.”

Thomas Winterstetter, Werner Sobek