{"id":2784,"date":"2024-12-02T20:47:17","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T01:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whia.us\/?p=2784"},"modified":"2025-02-06T12:53:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T17:53:45","slug":"zaha-hadid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/2784\/","title":{"rendered":"Zaha Hadid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Zaha Hadid<\/strong>, in full\u00a0Dame Zaha Hadid<\/strong>, (born October 31, 1950,\u00a0Baghdad<\/a>, Iraq\u2014died March 31, 2016,\u00a0Miami<\/a>,\u00a0Florida<\/a>, U.S.), Iraqi-born British architect known for her radical deconstructivist designs. In 2004 she became the first woman to be awarded the\u00a0Pritzker Architecture Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Early life and career<\/h2>\n

Hadid began her studies at the American University in\u00a0Beirut<\/a>,\u00a0Lebanon<\/a>, receiving a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics. In 1972 she traveled to London to study at the Architectural Association, a major centre of progressive architectural thought during the 1970s. There she met the architects\u00a0<\/span>Elia Zenghelis<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Rem Koolhaas<\/a>, with whom she would\u00a0collaborate<\/a>\u00a0as a partner at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture. Hadid established her own London-based firm, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), in 1979.<\/p>\n

In 1983 Hadid gained international recognition with her competition-winning entry for\u00a0<\/span>The Peak, a leisure and recreational centre in\u00a0Hong Kong<\/a>. This design, a \u201chorizontal skyscraper\u201d that moved at a\u00a0dynamic<\/a>\u00a0diagonal down the hillside site, established her aesthetic: inspired by\u00a0Kazimir Malevich<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Suprematists<\/a>, her aggressive geometric designs are characterized by a sense of fragmentation, instability, and movement. This fragmented style led her to be grouped with architects known as \u201cdeconstructivists,\u201d a classification made popular by the 1988 landmark exhibition \u201cDeconstructivist Architecture\u201d held at the\u00a0Museum of Modern Art<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0New York City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hadid\u2019s design for The Peak was never realized, nor were most of her other radical designs in the 1980s and early \u201990s, including the Kurf\u00fcrstendamm (1986) in\u00a0Berlin<\/a>, the D\u00fcsseldorf Art and Media Centre (1992\u201393), and the\u00a0Cardiff<\/a>\u00a0Bay\u00a0Opera<\/a>\u00a0House (1994) in\u00a0Wales<\/a>. Hadid began to be known as a \u201cpaper architect,\u201d meaning her designs were too avant-garde to move beyond the sketch phase and actually be built. This impression of her was heightened when her beautifully rendered designs\u2014often in the form of exquisitely detailed coloured paintings\u2014were exhibited as works of art in major museums.<\/p>\n

First built projects<\/h2>\n

Hadid\u2019s first major built project was the\u00a0<\/span>Vitra Fire Station<\/a>\u00a0(1989\u201393) in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Composed of a series of sharply angled planes, the structure resembles a bird in flight. Her other built works from this period included a housing project for IBA Housing (1989\u201393) in Berlin, the Mind Zone exhibition space (1999) at the\u00a0Millennium Dome<\/a>\u00a0in Greenwich, London, and the Land Formation One exhibition space (1997\u201399) in Weil am Rhein. In all these projects, Hadid further explored her interest in creating interconnecting spaces and a dynamic sculptural form of\u00a0architecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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