Movers and shakers

Meanwhile, in Mexico City, plans for a new international airport, master planned by Foster + Partners and FR-EE, appear to have been scrapped. In October, the newly elected president Andrés Manuel López Obrador made good on his campaign promise for public consultation, asking citizens whether they preferred to proceed with the new airport in Texcoco or to refurbish the existing facility. Though only about a million votes – out of a population of over 131 million – were cast, the results were overwhelmingly in favour of the latter option. It hasn’t all been bad news for Foster and co., though: In the same month, the firm’s Bloomberg H.Q. in London was awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize for 2018. The residential tower planned as Zaha Hadid’s first South American project was also cancelled in October. Residencial Casa Atlântica, in Rio de Janeiro, was designed in 2013 and was originally intended as a luxury hotel that would open before the 2016 Olympics. The project’s demise was no doubt overshadowed at ZHA by news that principal Patrik Schumacher was launching a legal battle to gain full control of Hadid’s Us$90-million estate. Schumacher is currently a co-executor along with Rana Hadid (Zaha’s niece), artist Brian Clarke and developer Peter Palumbo.