ART & DESIGN ONE TO WATCH THE SECOND COMING Just over a century after its first oil boom, Baku is back in the global spotlight, with a heady collection of cosmopolitan hotels, restaurants and architectural treasures. By Brian Noone The gravity-defying bends of the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Center The space-shuttle curves of the new Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku are impossible to miss amid the bleak Soviet-style blocks that surround it. Encompassing an auditorium, museum and exhibition space, all without the use of a right angle and barely a straight line, the building is majestic – a Zaha Hadid design that remains captivating for those who do not like her style, and counts, for those who do, as one of her crowning achievements. But the building matters not only as an architectural treasure or as a museum: its weightier significance is symbolic. In this oil-rich city of nearly two million, it portends a renaissance – or, at least, it might. Caught between a cosmopolitan past and an uncertain, oil-depleted future, Baku is at a crossroads, scrambling to determine not only how the economy will look, but also where to plant the pitch posts of a national identity that has been swayed by countless empires, most recently the Soviet and Ottoman. Which is to say, right now, Baku is fascinating. It is not merely an energy hub turning drilling profits into cultural collateral in the vein of Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Perth, nor is it just a Caucasian capital that has decided to reinvent its post-Soviet skyline with statement architecture, like Grozny and Tbilisi. It is both of these things, of course, but it is also a city with aspirations to be a European capital, including hosting the PHOTO HUFTON+CROW 68 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM CONTACT CENTURION SERVICE FOR BOOKINGS
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