"TWITTER FREAKS OUT OVER NEWS THAT HADID'S PERFORMANCE SPACE IN BAKU WINS THE DESIGN MUSEUM IN LONDON'S DESIGN OF THE YEAR AWARD."

Hahid's Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan
Hahid's Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan © Iwan Baan

Architect Zaha Hadid is known for her bold design choices. But she also known for her equally brash willingness to “design for dictators”--clients with murky human rights histories and pockets deep enough to support her ambitious creative visions.

Those two factors came to a head yesterday when the Design Museum in London named Hahid's Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, the winner of the Design of the Year award. Hailed by the museum for its “elaborate undulations and inflections,” the Heydar Aliyev has gorgeous white curves that suggest stretched and folded sound waves--fitting for a performance space that is home to the country’s cultural programs. Juror Piers Gough, of CZWG Architects, called the building, rather bizarrely, "as pure and sexy as Marilyn's blown skirt."

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Sparks were flying on Twitter as the design community learned the news.