SUBSCRIBE for more speakers ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmjrpqJ7uBNhmeP36xUC_5w Zaha Hadid has completed her latest avant-garde structure: the neo-futuristic Dominion Office Building that’s also one of Moscow’s most expensive properties per square meter. Inspired by the Russian avant-garde styles of the 1920s, the 21,184-square-meter office building comprises a series of vertically stacked and offset white volumes with alternating glazed bands. However, the most eye-catching feature of the building is not the exterior—it’s the dramatic light-filled central atrium that comprises overlapping black and white forms. Located in southeast Moscow, the seven-story Dominion Office Building achieves a sense of lightness, despite its large size, due to its long ribbon windows and staggered, cantilevered white volumes. “The Dominion Tower is a kind of critique of mass architecture, where each floor is the same as the other,” said Christos Passas, the project head and associate director at Zaha Hadid Architects to The Moscow Times. “We have tried to break this trend toward standardization, putting into the building’s exterior something more challenging and chaotic. In this case, the selected shape helps to hold a dialogue with the environment.” One of the world's leading archtects, Dame Zaha Hadid, has died, aged 65. The Iraqi-born designer suffered a heart attack in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis. As the first woman to have won the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the RIBA Gold Medal, Dame Zaha Hadid is praised for the powerful nature of her architecture. She has also done high profile interior work including inside the Millennium Dome and has worked on fashion design with Lacoste. Her work has been displayed in several museums across the world and led to her being described as "a formidable and globally-influential force in architecture". She designed the £11m Investcorp building at St Antony's College, Oxford. ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Oxford Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. Since 1823, the Union has been promoting debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.

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