Middle East Centre Oxford University: Unveiling of the Investcorp Building

From left: Nada and Nemir Kirdar (the Benefactor), Dame Zaha Hadid (the Architect),
HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar (the Keynote Speaker)
and Professor Eugene Rogan (the Director of the Middle East Centre)

On Tuesday 26 May, the Oxford University building created by Zaha Hadid was unveiled and named the Investcorp Building. The £11 million building was commissioned by St Antony’s College to provide much-needed space for its Middle East Centre. The Investcorp Building spans two Victorian buildings on Woodstock Road in the grounds of the college. Read more here

See images of the building here

See photos from the ceremony here

TV: Newsnight, BBC Two 27/05/2015, 22.30

One of the world’s top architects, Dame Zaha Hadid, is interviewed at St Antony’s College about the unveiling of the new building she has designed for the Middle East Centre. Interviewer Evan Davis describes it as ‘a gleaming new arrival…certainly eye-catching with the usual curvaceous form associated with Zaha Hadid, who also designed the Aquatics Centre of London 2012 Olympics. It is inescapably not trying to be conventional, rather like Zaha Hadid herself’. There are musical sequences over panning shots of the exterior and interior of the building.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05wxx88/newsnight-26052015
(around 33:42 on the clock)

The Guardian online, 26/05/2015, Ian Black
Article focuses on the keynote speech, at the opening of the new Investcorp building at St Antony’s College, given by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned, ‘one of the most influential and high-profile women in the Arab world’.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/26/qatar-emirs-mother-speaks-out-over-treatment-of-muslims-by-west

Mail Online, 26/05/2015, via Reuters
Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect, has designed a futuristic addition to Oxford University: a curvy bridge building for St Antony's College's Middle East Centre that was inaugurated on Tuesday. The 1,127-square-metre structure, which connects two existing Victorian premises, will house the centre's archive, library and 118-seat lecture theatre. The £11 million ($17 million) cost has been covered by Investcorp, an investment company which will give its name to the building and was founded in 1982 by Iraqi-born financier Nemir Kirdar.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3097814/Oxford-University-unveils-new-Hadid-designed-Middle-East-wing.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490