Zaha Hadid: A Designer Who Has Made a Difference

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Introduction

Many designers have made a difference by designing marvelous architectural works, but none has impressed me more than Zaha Hadid. Early this year, Zaha Hadid was named by the well-known magazine as an influential thinker. In Sept, the New Statesman a magazine in the U.K named her as the forty second most influential person, in their yearly survey in this year’s top 50 influential persons. Hadid also won this year’s Stirling Prize. She is again a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (same as the Nobel Prize in architecture) of 2004, the first-ever female receiver of the prize at that time. Born in Iraq (Baghdad), Hadid presently a professor (at the University of Applied Arts Vienna) in Austria is one of the most influential designer architects of all times. Therefore this paper will attest that Hadid is a designer who has made a difference.

Zaha Hadid and why I chose her

This designer architect (Hadid) was born in Iraq (Baghdad) in 1950. She is a math degree holder from Beirut American University (Suleiman, 2005). She later moved to London where she enrolled at the Architectural Association School of architecture. She graduated here and later worked with her tutors at the Metropolitan Architecture Office as a partner. Here she was given immense support by an engineer (Peter Rice). She afterward established her practice, teaching at her former school at the same time. Hadid has taught at high-status institutions all over the globe, as stated by Suleiman (2005):

Three things Hadid achieved/created

She held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the Knowlton School of Architecture, at The Ohio State University, the Master’s Studio at Columbia University, New York and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut.

Additionally, she was an AAAL (American Academy of Arts and Letters) and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects Honorary member, besides being on the Board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation. This is one of the reasons why I chose this designer.

The three most impressive things created by this designer are the Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park in Seoul, South Korea, the Channel Mobile Art Pavilion, and the Nordpak railway stations. This architect has also explored the boundaries of architectural work in numerous competitions on design retaining exploratory characteristics. Her initial paintings and drawings are significant investigative techniques for her architectural design. Her work has also been shown in exhibitions all over the world. The Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park in Seoul, South Korea is a magnificent piece of architectural work. This is will be the major attraction when the city will be holding the World Design Capital celebrations this year.

Hadid is also responsible for the design of the Channel Mobile Art Pavilion in Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, and Paris. In the creation of this piece of architectural work, Hadid engineered fluid-geometries of the natural system into a range of flowing and lively space where the opposition between the exterior and internal, light and darkness, natural and synthetic landscape is amalgamated (Seabrook, 2009). “Lines of energy converge within the Pavilion, constantly redefining the quality of each exhibition space whilst guiding movement through the exhibition” (Seabrook, 2009). The designs of preferred artists were specially made for the exposition. “Hadid created an entire landscape for their work, rather than just an exhibition space” (Seabrook, 2009). Here, visitors are taken through the space by use of the most recent digital technology developed in cooperation with the artists.

Besides being a winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, Hadid is the designer behind the architecture of the Nordpark railway stations (Seabrook, 2009). This includes 4 stations on the cable track towards Innsbruck. She engineered a special adaptation to the particular site conditions at the same time articulated coherency in the overall architectural designing vital for the specific approaches. Hadid employed 2 complementary elements ‘Shell & Shadow’ to produce spatial quality in each station. She used lightweight organic roof structures that were made to look like they were floating on the tops of the concrete plinths. “In her work, the artificial landscape functions as a relief in which various movements and circulations are inscribed” (Seabrook, 2009). When one looks at the Rover Shell’s liquefied forms and squashy curves, he/she reflects on natural phenomena such as glaciers. Hadid incorporated the feeling of a rear splendid natural phenomenon in completing this work making it more pleasing.

What she did that made a difference

Zaha Hadid has made outstanding achievements that no woman might ever attain. This is evidenced by the fact that she has been a professor in several prestigious universities and architectural institutions; she has been an honorary member of the AAAL and was on the board of trustees of the Architectural Foundation. Apart from winning the Pritzker Architecture Prize and being the first woman to achieve this, the designer is one of the most impressive architects in the world. The main reason for this is that she is always going to the extremes of how architectural design is perceived or what it could be. She works with technology and the natural environmental influences around what she wants to design to come up with impressive architectural masterpieces. Presently, this designer has her practice in London that is sought by the world’s most influential people and organizations who want outstanding architectural designs.

What we can learn about who we are and what we want to be from objects surrounding us

We can know a lot about who we are and what we want to be from the objects surrounding us. This can be shown by attitudes and reactions towards these objects. The senses in the form of perceptions rather than reason gather data through seeing, smelling, sound, touching, and tasting. “By use of this, the human brain interprets the world around and creates the experience of what one can be or who he is” (Mathews, 2002). About Hadid, I can say her work portrays a hard-working woman who goes to her extremes to achieve exemplary architectural creations that have no match. On the other hand, her work brings a sense of awe in us making us look fascinated.

About this subject, we can take an example of Hadid’s work then ask ourselves questions like does one get attracted to her particular workings, the purposes the work serves, and if we like the work or not. Another aspect emanating from the objects surrounding us is fear. Fear is an influential mechanism in showing what one can be or if he/she dares to challenge it. People are obsessive with objects and surround themselves with them as safety nets, or safeguards and yet the objects do not help in the ways they think they can (Mathews, 2002). Taking the Nordpark railway stations as an example, the designer used lightweight organic roof structures that were made to look like they were floating on the tops of the concrete plinths. These roofs are big and one cannot easily know whether they are lightweight or their mass. This can instill fear into people passing under them, as they are delicately attached to the plinth by a small portion on either side. Therefore, anyone who fears going under these structures will be unable to perceive the logic behind the safety applied during construction.

Conclusion

As shown in this paper, Zaha Hadid is not only an inspirational woman behind astonishing masterpieces of designer architectural work but is an impressive role designer architect who should be emulated by other women as a role model. This is evidenced by her achievements which among others are; winning the Stirling Prize, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, teaching in prestigious universities and architectural institutions, being selected as the preferred designer architect of the world most prestigious buildings and constructions, and being on the board of trustees of the Architectural Foundation. As a woman and particularly from Iraq, I think Hadid is the most impressive designer architect of all time.

Reference list

Mathews, W. 2002. Fear and objects around us. Nairobi: Longman Publishers.

Seabrook, H. 2009. Zaha Hadid’s Unfettered Invention. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Suleiman, T. 2005. Architect who has built a reputation for controversy. London. McGraw hill.

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