Regium Waterfront

Zaha Hadid Architects has released new images for the Regium Waterfront project in the city of Reggio Calabria, Italy.

The project, a museum and a multifunctional building for performing arts, aims to define the city as a Mediterranean cultural capital. Located on the narrow sea strait separating the Italian mainland from the island of Sicily it is composed of three "elements" that surround a partially covered piazza.

The Museum of Mediterranean History will house exhibition spaces, restoration facilities, an archive, an aquarium and library. The multifunctional building will house the museum's administrative offices, a gym, local craft laboratories, shops and a cinema. Three different auditoriums, which can be converted into one large space, are also housed in the multifunctional building.

According to Zaha Hadid, the form of the museum draws inspiration from the organic shapes of a starfish, the radial symmetry of which "helps to coordinate the communication and circulation between different sections of the museum and its other facilities."