Baku Expo City

Baku Expo City is a 489-acre district planned around the Baku Expo Center on the northeastern edge of the Azerbaijani capital, and its organizing idea is subtraction rather than addition: the pine forest already on the site stays, and the neighborhoods are threaded through it. Zaha Hadid Architects retains 92 percent of the roughly 18,000 existing trees, sets a forestry management regime so the canopy keeps maturing, and puts green roofs on every new building to insulate them, cut cooling demand and collect rainwater for reuse. Homes range from one-bedroom apartments to large family houses, arranged in interconnected neighborhoods stitched together by pedestrian paths, cycle routes, tree-lined boulevards and landscaped nature corridors rather than arterial roads. Kindergartens, schools, shops, markets, sports clubs, medical clinics, parks and cultural venues sit within walking distance, and a central public square anchors the district. The Baku Expo Center gains a new Congress Hall alongside a hotel aimed at travellers moving through the nearby airport. Baku is known as the city of winds, and the plan answers that directly: pedestrian wind comfort analysis positioned the buildings to act as shields against the cold Khazri blowing in off the Caspian in winter and the warm Gilavar arriving from the Iranian plateau in summer, so streets and gathering spaces stay usable year-round. Transit connections tie into an upgraded Bakikhanov to Bina to Gala rail line. It is the practice's second major work in Baku after the Heydar Aliyev Center.