Zaha Hadid is an Iraqi-born architect. She has held professorships of architecture at various universities and is the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2004. One of her most recent prizes was her winning — in a field of 200 architects and architectural firms — a competition for designing a factory for making BMWs in Leipzig, Germany. Her winning design is both a factory and a work of art, inspired by the idea of a beating heart or constant movement on a production line in an large open space. Hadid’s buildings and projects can be seen in major European, Asian and US cities.
She was born in Baghdad in 1950 to two liberals who were active in politics, economy and commerce. However, the family left Iraq in the 60s after the Baath Party took over the government. She studied at the American University in Beirut and then lived in Switzerland before enrolling in the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1972.
She is frank in saying that the path to success has not been easy and that, as an Arab woman from Iraq, she has had her share of unseen obstacles. She has managed, however, to overcome those obstacles and prove herself the equal — and the superior — of many internationally known architects. Following are a few comments about her:
One architectural writer said, “Zaha Hadid is like a tornado that shows its strength from the outside while its center is all complete calmness.”
Some who have competed against her said, “Zaha Hadid treats the world as if she’s the only diva.”
And The New York Times wrote, “The Rosenthal Center for Modern Art in the city of Cincinnati, designed by Zaha Hadid, is the most important new building in America since World War II.”
Arab Neglect
Though her buildings and projects are spread over the world and despite her international reputation, her only project in the Arab World is in Abu Dhabi. Nor has she received any official Arab or honorary Arab recognition. It seems the Arabs are concerned only with plans and then negotiating to lower costs; Hadid feels that in general, the Arabs are all talk and no action. In her office and in her world, there is no time for either since both are essentially time-wasters. She is currently busy with a number of projects including the one in Abu Dhabi.
The prize that Zaha Hadid recently won — the Pritzker Prize — is equivalent to a Nobel Prize in architecture. She went to the Russian city of St. Petersburg to receive the prize and in winning it, she set three records at once. She was the first woman to win the prize; she is the youngest person ever to win it in its 26-year history and last, she is the first Arab — male or female — to win such international recognition in the field of architecture.
Sayidaty was fortunate in meeting Zaha Hadid and asking her the following questions.
After receiving the highest international prize for architecture and after having taught for years, in your opinion, what are the features and characteristics of a successful architect?
There is no doubt that hard work and the ability to imagine are of prime importance. There have been many students who began slowly and then, after some serious study, excelled in both the practical and theoretical levels. The foundation for an architect is hard work and looking at the profession as a social responsibility as well as an expression of spirit, life and the outlook of the community. A successful design is one that expresses a number of differing yet relevant ideas; it also conveys the basic aim of the construction and makes it easy to carry out the objectives for which the structure was built. For example in the Leipzig project, the main idea revolved around the idea of constant motion and that is the idea that contributed to its construction. That makes it easy for those working there to exchange information and ideas, integrating the movement of the production line with the movement in the office. The factory is like a beating heart and a visitor can feel this as soon as he/she comes in through the main entrance.
When designing such a complex project as the BMW factory, does it first begin with separate elements that are later united into one? Or does the image come in one flash with details being inserted later?
Such a project takes work on a number of different stages or in a practical multi-phased way in which the project is viewed in general, including working out its basic idea — no matter how complex. During these stages and phases, a number of ‘sketches’ are made and discussed taking into consideration the entire project. We don’t work on a project in parts: Designing the production line separately and then the cafeteria and then the offices. We take all the elements into consideration and they are worked on together though the stages that I’ve mentioned.
British Triumphs
The year 2005 will be an exciting one for Zaha Hadid. She has won the right to design the new building for the Association of British Architects, a building which will symbolize British architecture in the 21st century. More than 200 international companies from 20 countries took part in the competition for this project. The president of the association said that Zaha Hadid won because she designed a building that was flawless and would be among London’s landmarks. “It is practical, providing us with the space we want and the calmness we ask for, and the solitude we want in an area full of large buildings.”
