INTRODUCTIONZaha Hadid is an architect who consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Her work experiments with spatial quality, extending and intensifying existing landscapes in the pursuit of a visionary aesthetic that encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban scale through to products, interiors and furniture. Best known for her seminal built works (Vitra Fire Station, Land Fomation-One and the Strasbourg Tram Station) her central concerns involve a simultaneous engagement in practice, teaching and research.
EDUCATION AND TEACHINGHadid studied architecture at the Architectural Association from 1972 and was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977. She then became a partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at the AA until 1987. Since then she held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, the Sullivan Chair at the University of Chicago School of Architecture, guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the Knolton School of Architecture, Ohio and the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York. She will be the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design for the Spring Semester 2002 at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.
COMPETITIONSHadid has been testing the boundaries of architectural design in a series of research-based competitions. Winning designs include The Peak, Hong Kong (1983), Kurfürstendamm, Berlin (1986), Düsseldorf Art and Media Centre (1992/93), Cardiff Bay Opera House, Wales (1994), Thames Water/Royal Academy Habitable Bridge Competition (1996), the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (1998), University of North London Holloway Road Bridge (1998), the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Rome (1999), the Bergisel Ski-jump in Innsbruck, Austria (1999), Placa de les Artes in Barcelona (2001), one-north masterplan for Singapore's Science Hub (2001), the Ordrupgaard Museum Extension in Copenhagen (2001) and the temporary Guggenheim Museum in Tokyo (2002).
Other competition entries include large scale urban studies for Hamburg, Madrid, Bordeaux and Cologne; Museum Buildings in Bad Deutsch Altenburg, Austria, Madrid (Prado, Reina Sofia, Royal Palace), the Victoria & Albert Museum's Boilerhouse Gallery, London and a Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar; concert halls for Copenhagen and Luxembourg; a theatre for the Hackney Empire, London and large scale multi-functional buildings for 42nd street, New York as well as for the IIT Campus in Chicago, and third prize for an event and delivery center for BMW in Munich.
PROJECTSZaha Hadid's built work has won her much academic and public acclaim. Her best known projects to date are the Vitra Fire Station, the LFone pavilion in Weil am Rhein, Germany (1993/1999), a housing project for IBA-Block 2, Berlin (1993), the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome, Greenwich, London (1999) and a Tram Station and Car Park, Strasbourg (2001). She has also completed furniture and interiors: Bitar, London (1985); Moonsoon Restaurant, Sapporo (1990) and the Z-Scape furniture manufactured by Sawaya and Moroni (2001). Her temporary structures include: Folly in Osaka (1990); Music Video Pavilion in Groningen (1990); a Pavilion for Blueprint Magazine at Interbuild, Birmingham (1995)).
Exhibition designs are: 'The Great Utopia', Guggenheim Museum, New York (1992); 'WishMachine' at the Vienna Kunsthalle (1996); 'Addressing the Century' at the Hayward Gallery, London (1998); Paper Art Biennale, Düren (1996); Venice Biennale Masters Pavilion (1996); Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (2000), and the Zaha Hadid Lounge, Wolfsburg (2001-2). Zaha Hadid has also worked on a number of stage sets: Pet Shop Boys World Tour 1999/2000; and Charleroi Dance Company, Belgium (2000). Exhibited projects at the Venice
Biennale, Austria Pavilion were: Bergisel Ski-jump, Austria; Spittelau Viaducts, Vienna; International Pavilion, Contemporary Arts Centre, Rome; and Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati. The British Pavilion showcased Holloway Road Bridge Link (London), Thames Water Habitable Bridge (London) and the Mind Zone, Millennium Dome, (London).
PUBLICATIONSHadid's paintings and drawings have always been an important testing field, and a medium for the exploration of her design. This work is widely published in periodicals and monographs which include Zaha Hadid: Planetary Architecture Two (no.11, 1983); GA Architect: Zaha Hadid (no.5, AA files, summer,1986, Tokyo); Zaha Hadid 1983-1991, El Croquis ( no.52, Dec, 1991,Madrid); Zaha Hadid 1992-1995, El Croquis (no. 73, Sept, 1995, Madrid); El Croquis 1996-2001 (no. 103, 2001, Madrid); Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings and Projects (Thames & Hudson, London, 1998); Zaha Hadid LF one (Landscape Formation one) in Weil am Rhein (Birkhäuser, 1999); Architecture of Zaha Hadid in photographs by Helene Binet (Lars Muller publishing, 2000); A+U Architecture and Design (no. 374, 2001, Japan); Casabella (no. 693, 2001, Italy); GA Document (nos. 65 and 66. 2001, Japan); New York Times, June 2002; Financial Times, June 2002; The Independent, June 2002.
EXHIBITIONSMajor exhibitions include a retrospective at the Architectural Association, London (1983), the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1978), the GA Gallery, Tokyo (1985), the Deconstructivist Architecture show at MoMA, New York (1988), the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (1995), Grand Central Station New York (1995), the San Francisco MoMA (1997/98) and the Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg (2001). Hadid's work also forms part of the permanent collections of various institutions such as MoMA New York, MoMA San Francisco and the Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt, Germany.
Yale is currently hosting the Zaha Hadid Laboratory, which will exhibit the current work and methods, and a major exhibition in Rome from May 2002, will showcase work for the Centre for Contemporary Art as well as a number of recent and current projects, as will the Venice Architecture Biennale 2002.
CURRENT PROJECTSZaha Hadid's office is working on a variety of projects: the Contemporary Arts Centres for Cincinnati and Rome; a ski-jump in Innsbruck, Austria; a masterplan for Singapore's Science Hub; a Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany; a ferry terminal in Salerno, Italy; a public square and cinema complex in Barcelona; a Central Plant Building for BMW in Leipzig; as well as a major bridge structure in Abu Dhabi. A landscape design for the Strasbourg Tramway has recently been completed.
Source :
www.zaha-hadid.com
Does this building look somehow familiar? The pointed center tower surrounded by minions and topped with a gold sculpture, the embracing wings, the arched entrance in the foreground and the side arcades; is there not a family resemblance to Manhattan’s Municipal Building?
Does this building look somehow familiar? The pointed center tower surrounded by minions and topped with a gold sculpture, the embracing wings, the arched entrance in the foreground and the side arcades; is there not a family resemblance to Manhattan’s Municipal Building?
