Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid ( _ar. زها حديد), CBE (born October 31, 1950, Baghdad, Iraq) is a notable British Iraqi deconstructivist architect.

Biography

Zaha Hadid was born October 31, 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. After graduating she worked with her former teachers, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, becoming a partner in 1977. It was with Koolhaas that she met Peter Rice who gave her support and encouragement early on, at a time when her work seemed difficult to build. In 1980 she established her own London-based practice. During the 1980s she also taught at the Architectural Association. She has also taught at prestigious institutions around the world; 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 Knolton School of Architecture, at the Ohio State University, the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design 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 Architects. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.

A winner of many international competitions, theoretically influential and groundbreaking, a number of Hadid's winning designs were initially never built: notably, The Peak Club in Hong Kong (1983) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994). In 2002 Hadid won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-north masterplan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previously, she had been awarded an CBE for services to architecture. She is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2006, Hadid was honoured with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

Work

Much of Hadid's early work was conceptual; realized projects include:

*Guggenheim-Hermitage Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania, (2008-) - not realized
*Eli and Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan State University, (2008-)
*London Aquatics Centre, London, UK, (2008-2013)
*CMA CGM Tower, Marseille, France, (2007-2009)
*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, Redsign,(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), Strasbourg, France
*Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (1998), Cincinnati, Ohio
*Vitra Fire Station (1994), Weil am Rhein, Germany
*Z.CAR hydrogen-powered, three-wheeled automobile

She has also undertaken some high-profile interior work, including the "Mind Zone" at the Millennium Dome in London. Ongoing projects include: The 17,500-seat Aquatics Centre for London, one of the new venues being constructed for the 2012 Summer Olympics. While she was previously slated for work in the Docklands area of Melbourne, it has since been announced that architect Norman Foster will be designing it instead. The MAXXI (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) in Rome. [http://www.darc.beniculturali.it/MAXXI/english/index.htm] The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. [http://www.daylife.com/photo/01hJ7Bx1Ow9mp/Zaha_Hadid] Zaha Hadid's project was named as the best for the Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in 2008.

Exhibits

*2007 - (29 June - 25 November) - Design Museum, London
*2006 - (1 June - 29 July) – Ma10 Mx Protetch Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
*2006 - (3 June - 25 October) – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
*2003 - (4 May - 17 August) - MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst or Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna)
*2002 - (10 May-11 August) Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee, Rome [http://www.darc.beniculturali.it/zaha_hadid/index.html]
*2001 - Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg
*2000 - British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
*1997 - San Francisco MoMA
*1995 - Graduate School of Design at Harvard University
*1988 - Deconstructivist Architecture show at MoMA, New York
*1985 - GA Gallery, Tokyo
*1983 - Retrospective at the Architectural Association, London
*1978 - Guggenheim Museum, New York

Films and Videos

* "A Day with Zaha Hadid" 2004, 52 minutes, colour. New York: Michael Blackwood Productions.

Awards

* 2003: European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture
* 2004: Pritzker Prize
* 2007: Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture

Further reading

*cite news | last =Sulaiman| first =Tosin | coauthors = | title =Architect who has built a reputation for controversy| work = | pages = | language = | publisher =The Times | date =2005-12-01 | url =http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/london_2012/article598479.ece | accessdate =2007-09-22
*cite news | last =Morrison | first =Richard | coauthors = | title =For ever thinking outside the boxy | work = | pages = | language = | publisher =The Times | date =2007-06-27 | url =http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1988806.ece | accessdate =2007-09-22

External links

* [http://www.zaha-hadid.com/ www.zaha-hadid.com] - Official site
* [http://www.zahahadidblog.com Official Zaha Hadid Blog for the Design Museum exhibition]
* [http://www.nou-sera.com/architect/zahahadid.html Zaha Hadid at nou-sera.com]
* [http://www.architecture-page.com/go/people/profiles/zaha-hadid Online profile of Zaha Hadid Architects, UK]
* " [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1890945,00.html 'I don't do nice'] " guardian.co.uk - discusses her first UK building (Maggie's Cancer Care Centre), October 9, 2006
* " [http://www.slate.com/id/2144044/?nav=tap3 Zaha's World: What does it mean to be a 'visionary' architect?] " - Critical Slate.com assessment of Zaha's career - June 2006
* " [http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/arts/design/02hadi.html?n=Top%2FFeatures%2FTravel%2FDestinations%2FUnited+States%2FNew+York%2FNew+York+City Zaha Hadid: A Diva for the Digital Age] " nytimes.com - exhibition at Guggenheim Museum in New York 2 June 2006
* [http://www.designboom.com/portrait/zaha_bio.html Zaha Hadid's profile] on designboom.com
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/alternating_currents/contemporary/mosque/index.html Designs for the Strasbourg Mosque (unbuilt) 2000]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/23/arts/20080123_HADID_SLIDESHOW_index.html NY Times Slideshow of Zaha Hadid's works]