Iraqi-born designer and architect Zaha Hadid studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, forming a close working relationship with her tutor, the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, with whom she worked throughout the 1970s. In 1980, she opened her own practice in London.
There is no doubt that Zaha Hadid has a reputation for her remarkable design and architecture, on par with her extraordinary character and temperament. His lively imagination began at the age of 11, and now transcends to his striking design of furniture and objects and particularly his architectural design.
His strong and often determined determination, which allows for little compromise, has resulted in some of his best works being left unbuilt. (The Cardiff Bay Opera House was spectacularly missed.) Yet this same uncompromising spirit has also made Hadid arguably the world’s most successful designer and architect. Immortalized as the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in her 26-year history, Hadid, or “the diva” as her critics call her, has succeeded in a field traditionally dominated by men.
His designs are completely untraditional and challenging, which is what makes them so dramatic. Clients for whom he has designed furniture and objects include Swarovski, Dupont, Sawaya & Moroni, and Alessi.
Hadid’s ‘Moraine’ sofa was commissioned by the renowned
Italian company Sawaya & Moroni. Covered in red ‘Fantasy Leather’, the ‘Moraine’ breaks new ground in its radical curvilinear asymmetrical form, a piece of furniture that is both sculpture and seat, abstract and functional.
Dupont was said to have been delighted with Hadid’s ‘Kitchen Design Z’, which features the company’s notable design material, Corian.
to perfection. Done in glacier white, the kitchen features 2 islands.
– Fire (for cooking) and Water (for washing). futuristic design
It comes equipped with many features, such as integrated thermal membranes, touch control panels, sound activators and scent dispensers, LED lighting and a multimedia entertainment system.
A limited edition “Tea and Coffee Tower” was created for an Alessi project in which 22 renowned designers were asked to create a “tea and coffee object”, with complete freedom. Hadid’s sterling silver sculpture is divided into four elements: teapot, coffee pot, milk jug and sugar bowl. This exceptional work of art behaves like a three-dimensional puzzle, sitting inside a tray that guides the user through the multiple configurations.
In 2006, he created an Aqua table for Established & Sons, which he describes as “like flying over water.”
With a translucent silicone gel, contours were formed on the smooth surfaces of the tables, creating a liquid color that attracts the viewer’s attention. Once again, Hadid was able to set another ‘first’ when the table sold for a record amount at a New York auction.
Similarly, the ‘Seamless’ modern furniture range, again for Established and Sons, has a liquid quality with 9 designs done in painted polyester resin. The New York Times stated that Hadid gives “liquidity” a whole new meaning.
Total fluidity also prevails in his interior design and architectural projects that have an indescribable ‘movement’. In fact, Hadid herself has expressed that her ideal home would have ‘movable walls’, so the kitchen could be moved and the bathroom would not have to be fixed in one place. In 2007, she exhibited “My Ideal House” at the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, Germany, a creation that literally “transformed” into every living space.
He has created interiors for the Guggenheim Museum in New
York, the Vienna Kunsthalle and the Hayward Gallery in London.
Of course, his architectural feats are most notable, both for their startlingly vivid presence and their ambitious structural achievement. Creating a structural space was certainly a shaky start. His first big hit, The Peak, a spa planned for Hong Kong, was never built. Nor are the buildings on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, or an arts and media center in Dusseldorf.
The first project built by Hadid, The Fire Station in the production complex of the Vitra office furniture group, was a formal but not a functional success. The fire service moved in and the building was converted into a chair museum. And the public opposition to his unconventional vision of the Cardiff Bay Opera House in the 1990s is now notorious, but history.
This became a turning point and architectural successes followed. These include the BMW plant, Leipzig – Germany. The central
The building is the active nerve center or brain of the entire factory complex. Mind Zone in London’s Millennium Dome, completed in December 1999, Zaha’s largest build to date. Center for Contemporary Art of Rome, the first national museum of contemporary art in Italy. The Bergisel ski jump, located in the
The Bergisel Mountain overlooking the center of Innsbruck, the ski jump is an important landmark. The Wolfsberg Science Center, the first of its kind in Germany, and a landmark project. The Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. The New York Times described it, without exaggeration, as “America’s most important new building since the Cold War.” Zaha explains his style as a ‘virtuoso of elegance’. explaining that
investigation and personal investigation
it’s loaded with so many ideas that you can’t get just one, so there’s no formal repertoire.
“It’s like a pianist constantly practicing, it’s the same level of intensity. It increases repertoires immensely, it’s unpredictable,” he says.
Inspiration comes from many influences, including Erich Mendelsohn, Mies van der Rohe, and le Corbusier. While he respects many contemporary designers and architects, he says “many are too obsessed with method. It becomes dogma.”
By all means, Zaha has followed no method, instead focusing on her goals, she has bulldozed rigidly throughout her career, leaving a string of international awards, prestigious titles, and accolades in her wake.
She is currently a professor at the Vienna University of Applied Arts in Austria and her work will be on display in a major exhibition at the Design Museum in London throughout 2007.
Zaha Hadid has achieved recognition both as a modern furniture designer and architect, and as a woman. In a field where women have to work much harder to make a difference, her work is often more surprising, in more subtle ways.