Zaha Hadid Architect director Melodie Leung has teamed up with Scotch whisky distillery Dalmore to create a “dramatic glass sculpture” housing two rare Highland Single Malt whiskies. The sculpture forms the second part of the Dalmore Luminary Series, a collaboration between the distillery and Scotland’s design museum, the V&A Dundee.

Leung’s piece is titled ‘The Dalmore Luminary – The Rate – 2024 Edition’ and will be auctioned with all proceeds going to the museum. For the piece, Leung worked with master glass artist Fiaz Elson of Dalmore and The Glass Foundry to create a “dynamic glass amber sculpture” to house a 49-year-old Old Single Malt.

The sculpture was produced in The Glass Foundry’s furnace over a period of 12 weeks. The initial casting was done at 890 degrees Celsius and held at this temperature for 15 hours to remove moisture and air bubbles. The temperature was then gradually lowered by one degree per day until it reached room temperature. After more than 500 hours of work, the sculpture was finely polished by hand to achieve its fluid texture and glossy surface.

ZHA’s Leung is not the first architect to design bespoke whiskey bottles. Daniel Liebeskind’s 2022 decanter design, which pays homage to Hennessy founder Richard Hennesy, is also notable. Meanwhile, in 2020, Frank Gehry designed a “masterpiece decanter” for the 150th anniversary of Hennessy X.O.