Capital Hill Residence is a project completed in Moscow by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2016. If only the Zaha Hadid signature underneath is enough to make the Capital Hill special, this is not the only exciting aspect of this project. Capital Hill Residence is the first and only residential project designed by Zaha Hadid. This gigantic ‘house’ designed for Russian businessperson Vladimir Doronin is quite different from the home concept we are used to no matter where we look. Here is a housing project to draw the mind of 140 million dollars from the most extraordinary architect of the century.
Above the Trees
Capital Hill Residence is in the Barkhiva Forest outside of Moscow, within Doronin’s private land. Rumor has it that Doronin expressed his desire to build a house on this 3000 square meter land in 2008 when he first met Hadid. While eating at a restaurant where the couple came together for a different project, Doronin told Hadid, ‘When I wake up in the morning, I don’t want to see any of my neighbors, I just want to see blue clouds. I want to be free. ” Zaha Hadid’s response was, “You are aware that you have to be on the trees for this, right?” Having received approval from Doronin, Hadid drew the first draft of the Capital Hill Residence right there on a napkin. Thus, the unprecedented building process of an exceptional design began.
Seeing the first renderings of the Capital Hill in the later stages of the design, Doronin thought the real structure would never look this way. However, when the project finished, even Doronin himself appreciated the intelligence and design vision of Zaha Hadid. The businessman himself, who is also in the real estate industry, says in an interview he gave about his house that it was the first time that he encountered a project that looked so similar to his draft.
Forest Tower Capital Hill
You can see that some people referred to Capital Hill as a “spaceship.” Indeed, Capital Hill follows Zaha Hadid’s futuristic design line that we see very comfortably. The house is in great harmony with the land, like many other public projects of the architect. The house has three floors sitting on the ground, one of which is underground.
The bottom floor is mostly for resting areas. Here, there is a fitness center, Turkish bath, sauna, and spa. On the ground floor, the upper floor is a living room, kitchen, indoor swimming pool, an entertainment room. There is a library, guest rooms, and a playroom for the guests’ children to spend time on the house’s first floor.
But where is the bedroom in this house? Here is the most striking point of Capital Hill! Doronin’s bedroom is located on a tower of 22 meters high, far from all these areas of the house. So when Doronin wakes up, he sees nothing but the blue sky. Anyway, all the top floor facades where the bedroom is, are fully covered with glass. That offers an uninterrupted view to its user.
A glass elevator provides the connection between that reinforced concrete tower and the rest of the house. So, even a trip to the bedroom in Capital Hill means an opportunity to see unique views. The façades of all three floors of the house, which sit on the ground, facing the forest, are entirely made of glass. Capital Hill continues to exist like a translucent box in the woods.
After the untimely death of Zaha Hadid in 2016, her former partner Patrik Schumacher took over the project. Schumacher says the Capital Hill is a unique project also for Zaha Hadid.
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