Zaha Hadid Architects Unveils Baku Expo City: A Masterplan Built Around 14,400 Pine Trees
Zaha Hadid Architects has been selected to design the Baku Expo City masterplan in Azerbaijan, a sprawling residential and civic project that will preserve 80 per cent of an existing pine forest on the site — roughly 14,400 of 18,000 trees — while stacking white, blocky homes among them.
The London-based studio, known for the fluid Heydar Aliyev Centre it previously designed in Baku, is laying out a neighbourhood where houses overlap one another in interconnected clusters. At the centre of the plan sit a new Baku Expo Center extension and a Congress Hall, ringed by a hotel, a public square and leisure venues. But the homes themselves are the structural trick: some buildings are positioned to act as windbreaks, shielding the public spaces between them.
Baku is called the City of Winds for good reason. The Khazri wind tears through in winter; the Gilavar bakes the city in summer. ZHA ran pedestrian wind-comfort analysis — modelling how air moves at ground level — to arrange buildings so they slow the wind and create sheltered outdoor areas. The houses, in effect, become walls against the weather.
The green roofs on every residence do triple duty. They help the buildings blend into the forested landscape visually, reduce the energy needed for cooling, and feed into the site's rainwater collection system. ZHA states the masterplan also integrates solar and wind energy generation, passive design strategies — architectural choices that reduce reliance on mechanical heating and cooling — and low-carbon material choices, according to Dezeen's report on the project.
What makes the plan unusual is how much of the existing site it leaves alone. Rather than clearing and replanting, the design nests homes among standing pines, and the masterplan includes a forestry management and replanting programme to keep the forest maturing over time. A city that has spent billions on cultural infrastructure — including Turkish studio Autoban's redesign of Baku's international airport — is now getting a residential district that treats an existing woodland as load-bearing infrastructure.
The full framework extends well beyond homes. Civic institutions, cultural venues, public parks, medical clinics and sports clubs are all in the plan. Public transport, including the upgraded Bakikhanov-Bina-Gala rail line, will connect the district to Baku's city centre and the airport, tying the new neighbourhood into the existing capital.
ZHA was selected for the masterplan earlier this week, as reported by e-architect on 19 August 2026, with detailed project information published by Dezeen on 21 August 2026. No construction timeline or budget figures have been disclosed.
