Zaha Hadid

She knew she wanted to become an architect and designer since she was 11 years old and pursued her dream relentlessly until it became a world-renowned smashing success. She started her own practice in London in 1980 and, in 2004, she became the first female recipient of the ’Pritzker Architecture Prize’, which is one the world’s most prestigious architectural prizes, created specifically to inspire greater creativity within the architectural profession.

 

Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1950 and moved to London in 1972 after attending the American University in Beirut. Her designs are currently shown in exhibitions around the world and many of her pieces are held in important museums around the globe.

 

Zaha Hadid is known as the architect whose element is air as she ‘floats buildings that reside aloft’. She is known as an architect who consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design as her work experiments with new spatial concepts, intensifying existing urban landscapes and encompassing all fields of design, from the urban scale to interiors and furniture. Her career has not been traditional and has certainly not been easy as she defies and challenges the laws of nature daily with her masterpieces.

 

During an interview with Zaha Hadid, she was asked who she would you like to design something for and she replied that she believed it would be very interesting to design objects for everyday life; something where the ideas that are expressed can be launched into society. She has passion for the environment and likes incorporating her buildings and designs with their surroundings.

 

Zaha Hadid does not use a computer; she does her sketches by hand. She works everywhere and at any time and can create more than 100 sketches for the same project. Her path to worldwide recognition has been a heroic struggle as she inexorably rose to the highest ranks of the profession. People are mesmerized by her dynamic forms and strategies for achieving a truly distinctive approach to architecture and its settings. Each new project is more audacious than the last and the sources of her originality and creativity seem endless.

 

Zaha Hadid is a true inspiration for Arab women. When once asked if she had advice for the young, she said, “You have to be very focused and work very hard, but it is not about working hard without knowing what your aim is! You really have to have a goal. The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal. Know what it is that you are trying to find out.”

 

 

Zaha Hadid realized projects include:

Guggenheim-Hermitage Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania, (2008-)

Eli and Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan State University, (2008-)

London Aquatics Centre, London, UK, (2008-2013)

CMA CGM Tower, Marseille, France, (2007-2009)

Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion (Worldwide) Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, (2006-2008)

Bridge Pavilion (2008), Zaragoza, Spain

Kartal Urban Transformation (2008) (projected), Istanbul, Turkey

Riverside Museum (2007-2011) (projected) development of Glasgow Transport Museum, Scotland

Cyprus : Eleftheria square, redesign,(2007)

Nordkettenbahn (aerial tramway) (2007), Innsbruck, Austria

Nuragic and Contemporary art museum (2006) (under construction), Cagliari, Italy

Maggie’s centre at the Victoria Hospital (2006), Kirkcaldy, Scotland

High speed train station of Afragola (2006), Afragola, Italy

BMW Central Building (2005), Leipzig, Germany

Ordrupgaard annexe (2005), Copenhagen, Denmark

Phaeno Science Center (2005), Wolfsburg, Germany

Bergisel Ski Jump (2002), Innsbruck, Austria

Price Tower extension hybrid project (2002), Bartlesville, Oklahoma – pending

Hoenheim-North Terminus & Car Park (2001), Hoenheim, France

Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (1998), Cincinnati, Ohio

Vitra Fire Station (1994), Weil am Rhein, Germany

Z.CAR hydrogen-powered, three-wheeled automobile