Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950 and has degrees in mathematics and architecture from the American University of Beirut and London's Architectural Association School of Architecture. Hadid became a partner at Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1977 and established her own practice in 1980. She has taught architecture at her former school, Architectural Association, Harvard, Yale, Ohio State, Columbia, and is currently teaching at Austria's University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Hadid won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for "services to architecture." She also won the Stirling Prize in 2010 for her "MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome". At her architecture firm, they are currently developing projects such as, "the Fiera di Milano tower, the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games, High-Speed Train Stations in Naples and Durango, the CMA CGM Head Office tower in Marseille and urban master-plans in Beijing, Bilbao, Istanbul, Singapore and the Middle East."

As a pioneer for successful and award-winning female architects, Hadid said, "As a woman, I'm expected to want everything to be nice, and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don't design nice buildings - I don't like them. I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthy quality." Hadid describes her style as "contemporary, organic and innovative." Her practice works to develop a "rigorous interface between architecture, landscape, and geology" while integrating the "natural topography and human-made systems that lead to experimentation" with new technology. Her projects demonstrate "complex, dynamic space' and "bold, visionary forms." In addition to architecture, Hadid also paints "Russian constructivist-inspired" paintings, designs furniture, and makes interior objects such as bowls and chandeliers.

Witold Rybczynski, a writer for Slate magazine, when he describes Hadid as a "visionary artist," saying her projects contain various "images of The Future: streamlined shapes, free-flowing forms, silhouettes that suggest an intergalactic space station." Hadid's "Spittelau Viaducts Housing Project" (1994-2005) is an abstract example of defying gravity through balancing large formed modules on seven poles. She uses a repetition of small square windows in each of the modules as well as curved arched bridges through the middle of the piece. Along with this work, She also uses squared forms to make spatial spirals in her "Urban Nebula" (2007) piece. In this outdoor piece, she uses a repetition of stacked blocks with shiny metal surfaces in a curved form to reflect the lights from street and the building. In her "Monsoon Restaurant" (1989-1990) she uses warm colors in her focal points to harmonize and reflect upon the darkness of the ceilings and floor. There is a repetition of curved lines in various directions to create gestures of enlivening the crowded space, with lots of smooth texture and surfaces.

Sources

"About" Zaha Hadid Architects. 26 November 2010.

Glancey, Jonathan. "I Don't Do Nice." Guardian. 9 October 2006.

Rybczynski, Witold. "Zaha's World." Slate. 21 June 2006.

"Zaha Hadid." Wikipedia. 26 November 2010. .
"Zaha Hadid Architects : Architecture Information + Images." E- Architect. 26 November 2010.