Her architectural style is unique. Her images transfer consciousness to other galaxies and dimensions. She knew exactly what the future was and seemed to see its paintings. She could not create gray and familiar. After all, she was born to change the current world to the one that many saw only in dreams…
“It is important to create something new, since architecture is the face of current generation and the symbol of current moment. It is the buildings that create the chronicle of time, we learn from them about people’s history, their way of life and morals” – Zaha Hadid.
“If there are 360 degrees, why then follow just one?”
Zaha Mohammad Hadid is a native of Iraq and a subject of Great Britain. She was born in 1950 in a family of politician and an artist. Apparently, that’s why, two talents, rational mathematical and free artistic, harmoniously intertwined in young Zaha. The richest history of her homeland, i.e. Schumer, Babylon, Assyria - the cities of ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia swirled by sands and lost among marshes, immediately influenced her love for designing buildings. How many stories, wisdom of generations and hidden secret knowledge are there! All this overwhelmed Zaha and outlined her inevitable path and life mission.
Beginning ... After school, in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Zaha was studying mathematics in local private American university. Strengthening this talent, at the age of 22 the girl moved to England, London, to study architecture at the School of Architectural Association. Zaha’s teachers were Elia Zengelis and Rem Koolhaas. It was at the architectural bureau of the latter, OMA, that after graduation, Zaha Hadid began working. Koolhaas himself considered her “to be the best his student for all times”. When the time came, the student left her teacher to start her own business - Zaha Hadid Architects architectural firm.
Both Hadid and her teacher Koolhaas were great avant-garde artists. Often, their pieces were too bold for the public to bring them to life. More specifically, Zaha worked in the genre of deconstruction. Unusual forms of her projects, like spaceships of alien creatures, invaded urban landscapes. Wrong corners or, on the contrary, unusually smooth, streamlined silhouettes contrasted too much with the idea of the beautiful of general public of the 70s and 80s. Zaha Hadid’s projects win several prestigious architectural competitions. Her works attract the attention of colleagues around the world. Back then, architects understand: a future is behind bizarre creations of this woman.
“Cities should invest in a good spatial organization that will have more impact than lots of terrible cheap buildings”.
In 1993, the first Zaha’s project i.e. fire station of the company - manufacturer of Vitra designer furniture was brought to life in small German town called Weil am Rhein.
It would seem not a very significant project, but it managed to surprise many people. The structure of concrete blocks looked monolithic and unstable; it seemed to be “otherworldly” and at the same time created by nature itself as a continuation of the landscape. The same year, another Zaha’s project i.e. IBA Berlin apartment building was completed. Next, came amazing art centres in Ohio and Rome.
Many of their visitors confess that these buildings themselves are the best “exhibits” of their exhibitions. And participation in the creation of Rozental Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, built in 2003, finally brought Zaha Hadid to the level of master of modern architecture.
She used her unique style to create interior elements, furniture, theatrical scenery, exhibition installations, and even a model of Lacoste shoes.
In 2005, Zaha Hadid was awarded a title “Designer of the Year” at the first Design Miami exhibition. And a year earlier, in 2004, she won the most prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. Hadid was the first woman in history, who has got this prize!
Architects’ training allows us seeing what will happen in ten to twenty years.
It is obvious that the success of the architect was influenced not only by bolder tastes of the new time, but also by opportunities and technologies it brought. Zaha seemed to contradict the canons on purpose. She played with space and form, thereby creating “live”, “moving” projects. Perhaps there is something more ancient behind this avant-garde. Sometimes, Hadid works demonstrate fluid smoothness of Arabic calligraphy, while abstract remind us of innate naturalness. Looking at them, you do not feel like clutching at the head in an attempt to keep your eyes and brain in place. She “freed architectural geometry” - they wrote about the architect in The Guardian. And, as mentioned above, this was largely due to new technologies.
Zaha Hadid constructivism is well combined with a parametric approach to creating projects. Using computer powers she managed to build truly fantastic creations. Among them are: Bergisel springboard in Innsbruck (Austria);
central BMW plant building in Leipzig (Germany);
the CMA CGM Tower in Marseille (France);
golden metro station in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia);
Wuxi Xidong park bridge (China ) and dozens of others.
One of the most famous and iconic Zaha’s projects was the Heydar Aliyev Center erected in 2012.
It embodies the brightest ideas of the architect and became a real decoration of the capital of Azerbaijan - the city of Baku. The same year, Zaha Hadid was awarded a title of Dame-Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
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