Zaha Hadid, Iraqi architect born in Bagdad in 1959, was educated in the idea that everything’s possible, that’s why from her early begginings she settled in London where things were not easy for an Iraqi woman, rich and with very clear ideas about what architecture and design should be. As she reflects, “ the fact of being a woman, immigrant, pioneer, rich… all this stuff. The combination between an immigrant woman, arab, selfsufficient and who made strange things didn’t make things easy. But being so marked has favoured me. They let me be and do whatever I wanted. But at the same time, they blocked me the entrance to some orders and professional areas”
Galaxy Soho Mall, Beijing (photos via Hufton & Crow)
Zaragoza International Expo bridge in different views, Spain
Despite all her repercussion, her career didn’t take off until Rolf Fehlbaum, German business man, gave her the opportunity to shine entrusting her the firemen station at Weil am Rheim, in 1993. Fom then her career has been stunning, winning, indeed, the maximum architecture prize, the Pritzker, in 2004.
Vídeo – Main projects by Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid’s architectural style is very close to deconstructivism, she experiments with spaces, playing with curve lines, achieving that her buildings flow like liquids giving the landscape a future-like appearence.
Rising under her signature there are buildings such as: the Spiral Tower, BMW headquarters in Leipzig, The Bridge-Pavillion over the Ebro river, in Zaragoza, a tramway station in Strasbourgh, the water center in London 2012, Vitra firemen station, Rosenthal Contemporary Art Centre, one ski-jump platform in Innsbruck… and nowadays she still has projects all over the world.
Project of Spiral Tower, Barcelona
London Olympics pool, 2012
Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Ohio
To come to an end, we finish the article in words of Zaha Hadid speaking about her job, she says: “I don’t like to impose but liberate. People fancy the most extreme landscapes. They climb up mountains, walk deserts, dive and find wonders. They make an effort and come back high-spirited. That’s what I look for doing with architecture, to magnify it, to provide experiences to people. I try to capture the unique experience in a public space because not everybody can afford a stay in the most expensive hotels in the world. I’m interested in giving that experience at concert halls, libraries, museums…”
