Brixton Academy by Zaha Hadid

After more than two years of provisional arrangements, students from Evelyn Grace Academy were able to move into a new school building designed by Zaha Hadid, which opened on September 13, 2010. The school is located in south London, in the Brixton district, which has consistently ranked among the highest for violent crime in Europe.
The gymnasium, designed by Hadid together with Arup and QS Davis Langdon, appears as an open, transparent, and inviting sculpture in its surroundings. Its location between two residential areas has influenced the final form of the school, giving it a distinctive identity. The dynamic floor plan lines resemble Hadid's previous project, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, or the recently completed Transport Museum in Glasgow.
The building, covering an area of 10,500 m², will serve twelve hundred schoolchildren. The entire complex is divided into four parts, which according to new pedagogical principles in the UK are referred to as schools-within-schools. The irregular shape inside surprisingly contains rectangular classrooms. A striking feature of the entire complex is the one hundred meter long red running track that runs from north to south, crossing through the school building. The strong white lines of the running track further emphasize the curved shape of the school made of glass and concrete.