Celebrated architect Dame Zaha Hadid has passed away at age 65. Despite her young age, the Iraqi-born, British designer leaves behind a magnificent legacy and portfolio that includes the London Aquatic Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games, MAXXI Italian National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, and a stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
April 1st, 2016
Brazen, highly experimental, impactful and inspirational – Zaha Hadid regularly ventured where few would dare. Earlier this year she was the first woman to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Gold Medal in its 180 year history. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker prize in 2004, placing her amongst the company of artistic visionaries like Gehry and Utzon.
Born in Baghdad in 1950, Hadid studied mathematics at the American University in Beirut, and relocated to London in 1972 where she studied at the Architectural Association, a centre for experimental design and the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK. She established her own practice in 1979, and from there began to receive recognition for her futuristic, fantastical unrealised drawings and paintings, such as the Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong (1983) and Kurfürstendamm 70 in Berlin (1986).
Despite some controversies surrounding construction, Hadid’s designs have captured the imagination of people the world over. Often featuring undulating folds, feminine bows and mind-bending curvatures – her life’s work is made up of a collection of ambitious, emotive and future-focused projects. The Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul is a floating silver aluminium orb, and earned the city the title of World Design Capital in 2010. Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Centre in Azerbaijan is made up of a series of almost calligraphic flicks and waves in brilliant, glowing white. The building was a technological masterpiece – a combination of geometry, structure and materiality, brought together and controlled by advanced computer algorithms. Her design work crossed disciplines, and included furniture, jewellery, footwear, cars and the fittingly titled ‘Z.Boat’.
Other notable Hadid inventions include the Riverside Museum of Transport in Glasgow, the Vitra fire station in Weil Am Rhein in Germany and the Guangzhou Opera House in China. See our compilation of just a few of Hadid’s most inspired projects here.
Hadid was an iconic leader, who refused to be slowed down by her background or her gender. “I am non-European, I don’t do conventional and I am a woman,” she once said in an interview. Her influence is spread across disciplines and across all walks of life – within the very art of architecture, for women, and in evolving future cities all over the world.
Hadid suffered a heart attack while being treated for bronchitis at a hospital in Miami on March 31, 2016.
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
The new range features slabs with warm, earthy palettes that lend a sense of organic luxury to every space.
Gaggenau’s understated appliance fuses a carefully calibrated aesthetic of deliberate subtraction with an intuitive dynamism of culinary fluidity, unveiling a delightfully unrestricted spectrum of high-performing creativity.
BLANCOCULINA-S II Sensor promotes water efficiency and reduces waste, representing a leap forward in faucet technology.
Luis De Oliveira of De La Espada and Seyhan Özdemir of Turkish design studio Autoban were special guests at Dream Interiors’ cocktail party during Singapore’s Saturday in Design week!
Whilst we may be in the midst of the “Asian Century” commentators believe we have embarked on an equally significant era: “the Female Economy”. According to Harvard Business Review, women now drive the world economy, controlling approximately $28 trillion in annual consumer spending*.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
As Kvadrat announces its full independence, Njusja de Gier shares some insight on her fascinating and rather unorthodox career path.
A major urban renewal project has been proposed for Sydney’s inner harbour, with developer Landream revealing plans for Pyrmont Place precinct designed by BVN.
The latest additions to Tappeti’s Gradient Collection explore the emotive power of colour through a series of hand-knotted and hand-tufted rugs.
In commercial interiors, flooring needs to do more than ground a space, it should tell a story. Through collaboration with the industry’s leading lights, Designer Rugs creates custom rugs & bespoke carpet solutions, finding ways to elevate commercial environments with material nuance and design integrity.