Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid
Born Zaha Mohammad Hadid
31 October 1950
Baghdad, Iraq
Nationality Iraqi-British
Alma mater American University of Beirut
Architectural Association School of Architecture
Occupation Architect
Practice Zaha Hadid Architects
Buildings Maxxi, Bridge Pavilion, Maggie's Centre, Contemporary Arts Center
Website
www.zaha-hadid.com
Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza, Spain
Bergisel Ski Jump, Innsbruck, Austria
BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany
Vitra fire station, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Maggie's Centre, Kirkcaldy
Contemporary Arts Center, Hadid's first United States work in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Phæno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at 547 East Circle Drive, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan USA.
Library and Learning Center (left, architect: Zaha Hadid), Departement 1 and Teaching Center (right, architect: Laura Spinadel)

Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE (Arabic: زها حديد‎ Zahā Ḥadīd; born 31 October 1950) is an Iraqi-British architect. She received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004—the first woman to do so—and the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011.

Her buildings are distinctively neofuturistic, characterised by the "powerful, curving forms of her elongated structures"[1] with "multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry to evoke the chaos of modern life".[2] She is currently professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.

Early life and education

Zaha Hadid was born on 31 October 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She grew up in one of Baghdad's first Bauhaus-inspired buildings during an era in which "modernism connoted glamour and progressive thinking" in the Middle East.[1]

She read mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, where she met Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis, and Bernard Tschumi. She worked for her former professors, Koolhaas and Zenghelis, at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; she became a partner in 1977. Through her association with Koolhaas, she met Peter Rice, the engineer who gave her support and encouragement early on at a time when her work seemed difficult. In 1980, she established her own London-based practice. During the 1980s, she also taught at the Architectural Association.

Teaching

Dame Zaha Hadid has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was the Kenzo Tange Professorship and the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Architecture. She also served as guest professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg), the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University, the Masters Studio at Columbia University, and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture. From the year 2000 on Dame Zaha Hadid is a guest professor at The University of Applied Arts – Vienna, in the Zaha Hadid Master Class Vertical-Studio.

Zaha was named an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She has been on the board of trustees of The Architecture Foundation. She is currently professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.

Interior architecture and product design

Zaha has also undertaken some high-profile interior work, including the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome in London as well as creating fluid furniture installations within the Georgian surroundings of Home House private members club in Marylebone, and the Z.CAR hydrogen-powered, three-wheeled automobile. In 2009 she worked with the clothing brand Lacoste, to create a new, high fashion, and advanced boot.[3] In the same year, she also collaborated with the brassware manufacturer Triflow Concepts[4] to produce two new designs in her signature parametric architectural style.

In 2007 Zaha Hadid designed the Moon System Sofa for leading Italian furniture manufacturer B&B Italia.[5]

In 2013 Zaha Hadid designed Liquid Glacial comprises a series of tables resembling ice-formations made from clear and coloured acrylic. Their design embeds surface complexity and refraction within a powerful fluid dynamic. Prototype Liquid Glacial Table | Zaha Hadid at David Gill Galleries

Architectural work

Her architectural design firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, employs more than 350 people, and is headquartered in a Victorian former school building in Clerkenwell, London.

Conceptual projects

Completed projects

Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan

Ongoing projects

In 2010, Hadid was commissioned by the Iraqi government to design the new building for the Central Bank of Iraq. An agreement to complete the design stages of the new CBI building was finalized on 2 February 2012, at a ceremony in London.[14] This will be her first project in her native Iraq.[15] Other work includes Pierres Vives, the new departmental records building (to host three institutions, namely, the archive, the library and the sports department), for French department Hérault, in Montpellier.[16]

Hadid's project was named as the best for the Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in 2008. She designed the Innovation Tower for Hong Kong Polytechnic University, scheduled for completion in 2013, and the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion that was displayed in Hong Kong in 2008.[17][18][19] She completed a new building for Evelyn Grace Academy in London in 2010.[20]

Criticism

Hadid’s architectural language has been described as "famously extravagant" with many of her projects sponsored by "dictator states".[21] Rowan Moore described Hadid's Heydar Aliyev Center as "not so different from the colossal cultural palaces long beloved of Soviet and similar regimes". Architect Sean Griffiths characterised Hadid's work as "an empty vessel that sucks in whatever ideology might be in proximity to it".[22] Art historian Maike Aden criticises in particular the foreclosure of Zaha Hadid's architecture of the MAXXI in Rome towards the public and the urban life that undermines even the most impressive program to open the museum.[23]

Qatar controversy

As the architect of the most distinctive stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Hadid defended her involvement in the project, despite revelations relating to the working conditions imposed on migrant workers in Qatar. She acknowledged that there was a serious problem with the number of migrant workers who have died during construction work related to the World Cup. She also said that she believed it was a problem for the Qatari government to resolve.

"I have nothing to do with the workers," said Hadid. "I think that's an issue the government – if there's a problem – should pick up. Hopefully, these things will be resolved." Asked if she was concerned, Hadid added: "Yes, but I'm more concerned about the deaths in Iraq as well, so what do I do about that? I'm not taking it lightly but I think it's for the government to look to take care of. It's not my duty as an architect to look at it. I cannot do anything about it because I have no power to do anything about it. I think it's a problem anywhere in the world. But, as I said, I think there are discrepancies all over the world."[24]

In August 2014, Hadid sued the New York Review of Books for defamation for publishing an article which included this quote and allegedly accused her of 'showing no concern' for the deaths of workers in Qatar.[25] Immediately thereafter, the reviewer and author of the piece in which she was accused of showing no concern issued a retraction in which he said "...work did not begin on the site for the Al Wakrah stadium, until two months after Ms Hadid made those comments; and construction is not scheduled to begin until 2015.... There have been no worker deaths on the Al Wakrah project and Ms Hadid's comments about Qatar that I quoted in the review had nothing to do with the Al Wakrah site or any of her projects. I regret the error."[26]

Museum exhibitions

Films and videos

Other work

Awards and international recognition

In 2002, she won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-north master plan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland.

In 2004, Zaha became the first female and first Muslim[31] recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. In 2006, she was honoured with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

In 2008, she ranked 69th on the Forbes list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women".[32] In 2010, she was named by Time as an influential thinker in the 2010 TIME 100 issue.[33] In September 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Zaha Hadid at number 42 in their annual survey of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".[34] Hadid was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to architecture.[35][36] She was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the Guardian in March 2013.[37] Three years later, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[38]

She won the Stirling Prize two years running: in 2010, for one of her most celebrated works, the Maxxi in Rome,[39] and in 2011 for the Evelyn Grace Academy, a Z‑shapes school in Brixton, London.[40] She is also the designer of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park in Seoul, South Korea, which was the centerpiece of the festivities for the city's designation as World Design Capital 2010. The complex was completed in March 2014.

Other awards and honours

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vogel, Carol. "Zaha Hadid". Times Topics (The New York Times).
  2. ↑ "Zaha Hadid (19 June–25 November 2007)". Design Museum.
  3. ↑ Lacoste
  4. ↑ "Triflow Concepts". Triflow Concepts. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  5. ↑ "B&B Italia modern contemporary furniture – leading italian company in the international scene of design furnishings". Bebitalia.it. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Maxxi_Museo Nazionale Delle Arti Del Xxi Secolo". Darc.beniculturali.it. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
  7. ↑ "Galaxy Soho – Architecture – Zaha Hadid Architects". Zaha-hadid.com. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Photo from Reuters Pictures". Reuters Daylife. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
  9. ↑ Howell, Brandon (13 November 2012). "Broad Art Museum draws thousands to Michigan State during opening weekend; $40 million fundraising goal met". MLive Lansing (East Lansing).
  10. ↑ http://wdc2010.seoul.go.kr/eng/with/busi_ddp.jsp (English)
  11. ↑ "Afragola station delayed" (156). Today's Railways Europe. December 2008. p. 52.
  12. ↑ "New Century City Art Centre – Architecture – Zaha Hadid Architects". Zaha-hadid.com. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  13. ↑ New York Magazine The Zaha Moment, 14 July 2013
  14. ↑ "Zaha Hadid Architects and Central Bank of Iraq Sign Agreement for New Headquarters". 12 February 2012.
  15. ↑ Nayeri, Farah (27 August 2010). "Zaha Hadid to Design New Iraqi Central Bank After June Attack". Bloomberg L.P.
  16. ↑ "Pierres Vives" (in French). Retrieved 11 March 2009.
  17. ↑ Bonnie Chen In the frame 25 May 2009 The Standard
  18. ↑ PolyU appoints Zaha Hadid as Architect of Innovation Tower 12 December 2007 Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  19. ↑ Hadid goes back to Hong Kong Zaha Hadid's Innovation Tower in Hong Kong Friday 14 December 2007 World Architecture News.com
  20. ↑ Evelyn Grace Academy: Buildings & facilities
  21. ↑ Michael Murphy, "The Poverty of Starchitecture"
  22. ↑ Rowan Moore, "Zaha Hadid: queen of the curve". The Observer, 8 September 2013.
  23. ↑ Maike Aden: Kunst im Belagerungszustand (Engl.: Art under siege). In: Urbanophil. Netzwerk für urbane Kultur. Nov. 2014
  24. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/zaha-hadid-qatar-world-cup-migrant-worker-deaths
  25. ↑ Walters, Joanna (25 August 2014). "Zaha Hadid suing New York Review of Books over Qatar criticism". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  26. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/26/zaha-hadid-magazine-critic-issues-retraction
  27. ↑ "D A R C – Zaha Hadid". Darc.beniculturali.it. Retrieved 17 January 2009. (English) (Italian)
  28. ↑ "Zaha Hadid – World Architecture".
  29. ↑ http://www.michaelblackwoodproductions.com/archm_hadid.php
  30. ↑ "Guest editor: Zaha Hadid". BBC. 27 December 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
  31. ↑ Sudjic, Deyan (9 October 2006). "I don't do nice". Jonathan Glancey (London). The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2012."Strictly speaking, she is a Muslim"
  32. ↑ Forbes: The World's 100 Most Powerful Women
  33. ↑ "Time 100 – Thinkers : Zaha Hadid"
  34. ↑ "42. Zaha Hadid – 50 People Who Matter 2010". New Statesman. UK. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  35. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60173. p. 6. 16 June 2012.
  36. ↑ "THE LONDON GAZETTE, SUPPLEMENT No. 1". 16 June 2012. p. 521. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  37. ↑ Cartner-Morley, Jess; Mirren, Helen; Huffington, Arianna; Amos, Valerie (28 March 2013). "The 50 best-dressed over 50s". The Guardian (London).
  38. ↑ BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour Power list
  39. ↑ Heathcote, Edwin (3 October 2010). "Hadid finally wins Stirling Prize". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
  40. ↑ "Evelyn Grace Academy wins Stirling Prize". BBC News. 2 October 2011.
  41. ↑ http://prix.groupemoniteur.fr/equerre_d_argent (French)
  42. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 1713. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  43. ↑ "RIBA Awards". e-architects. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 "RIBA European Awards". RIBA. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  45. ↑ "2010: RIBA Award Winners Announced". Bustler. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  46. ↑ Vanessa Quirk (16 April 2012). "Is Zaha's Latest Prize Really an Advancement for Women?". Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 January 2014. Originally published by ArchDaily 12 April 2012.
  47. ↑ "Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award". 22 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  48. ↑ "Newly Elected – April 2013 | American Philosophical Society". Amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 18 March 2014.

Further reading

External links

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