Architect Zaha Hadid unveils radical plan for Bilbao

Ten years ago, Bilbao celebrated the opening of the Guggenheim museum
that was to put the rundown industrial city in Spain's northern Basque
region on the map, and draw in a million visitors a year. It has now
launched an architectural project that may yet become an equally
important symbol of the city's turnaround.

The British-Iraqi
architect Zaha Hadid has presented radical plans for the city's
neglected Zorrozaurre peninsula, part of a redevelopment that would see
it converted into an island.

Once a crucial part of the port, the peninsula, in the estuary of the
river Nervión, had been left to decay. With only around 450 people
living there and a few small industries left, it seemed to have no part
of Bilbao's glowing future.

Hadid
aims to change that: she plans to cut off the land that joins it to the
mainland, and reconnect the newly formed island to the city with eight
bridges. The urban development will occupy 72 hectares (180 acres),
with 6,000 new houses, two technology centres and a four hectare (10
acre) park. The Basque regional government has estimated the total
cost, including transport links, business development and other
infrastructure, at €1.43bn (£987m)

Hadid was once famous as the
architect whose buildings never made it off the page. In recent years,
however, her work has started to appear across the world, and she is
working on some of the most important new buildings in Spain, including
the civil courts in Madrid, the Spiralling Tower on Barcelona's
seafront and other important buildings in Seville and Zaragoza.