Zaha Hadid architect

by Artvisualizer Press Media Monday, May 04, 2009

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 the engineer 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 Knowlton 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 the Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 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 honored 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. Zaha Hadid's architectural design firm - Zaha Hadid Architects - is over 250 people strong, headquartered in London.

In 2008, she ranked 69th on the Forbes list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women".[1] On January 2nd 2009, she was the guest editor of the BBC's flagship morning radio news programme, Today.

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)
Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion (Worldwide) Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, (2006-2008)
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, redesign,(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), Hoenheim, 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.^[3] The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan.^[4] The new departmental records building, Pierres vives, for Hérault in Montpellier.^[5] Zaha Hadid's project was named as the best for the Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in 2008.

Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza, Spain

Bergisel Ski Jump, Innsbruck, Austria

BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany

Vitra fire station, Weil am Rhein, Germany

Maggie's Centre, Kirkcaldy

Contemporary Arts Center Hadid's first American work in Cincinnati, Ohio

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^[6]
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