Zaha Mohammad Hadid (10/31/1950 - 03/31/2016) - an outstanding modern architect and designer. She created ultramodern buildings in many parts of the world. Several of her projects were erected in Russia.
Zaha Hadid Biography
Zaha Hadid is from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Her father was involved in politics, and her mother was painting. Architecture began to interest Zaha when she was only 6 - 7 years old. Her father’s friend, an architect who was building a house in Mosul for her aunt’s girl, came to her parents’house. He brought with him drawings and models that intrigued and attracted the child. Interest with age did not disappear, but rather flared up so much that architecture became the main business of her life.
Zaha Hadid in childhood
Zahi Hadid's education and career
Zaha first studied in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut. Since 1972 she continued her education at the Architectural School of the Association of Architects (AA) in London. Upon completion, she worked for some time at the bureau of one of her former teachers, the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. He considered her his most talented student and called it "a planet in its own orbit."
However, in 1979 she founded the company Zaha Hadid Architects and began an independent creative flight. Zaha said that the most expensive thing for her was the team: all those who worked with her and did not leave even in the difficult decade from 1993 to 2003. People did not leave, although most architectural projects existed only on paper. The bureau worked mainly in the field of subject design, furniture and interior design.
The first project that could be brought from the drawings to construction was the building of the fire department in the German city of Weil am Rhein for Vitra (1990 - 1993).
Zaha Hadid. Fire Station in Weil am Rhein. Germany.
Things went uphill after the construction of the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati in the USA in 1999.
In addition to her direct studies in architecture, Zaha taught at AA until 1987 and lectured around the world, including held master classes in Russia. She warmly treated the young, which there are still many among the employees of her company’s office. In one of her few interviews, she explained this fact as follows:
Zaha’s brainchild did not fall apart after her death. A team of several hundred people continues the work of their leader, completing the architectural and design projects that had already begun with her. Zahi Hadid, partner and associate of the bureau, is led by architect and architectural theorist Patrick Schumacher.
Confession
The project of the Peak Sports Club, created by Zaha for a client from Hong Kong, was her first victory in a significant architectural competition (1983).
Gradually, Zaha Hadid becomes a recognized architect, whose vivid designs are strikingly different from the work of other specialists. In 2004, she became the laureate of the most prestigious award in the field of architecture - Pritzker. This award was first awarded to a woman architect. The award ceremony was held at the Hermitage Theater on the Palace Embankment of St. Petersburg.
One of the important factors that is considered when awarding the prize is the presence of innovative ideas incorporated into the projects. Innovation in the work of Zaha Hadid from the very beginning was one of the fundamental principles. The formation of her individual style was influenced by a passion for avant-garde, especially the work of Kazimir Malevich. At the beginning of her career, she was seriously interested in the experiments and techniques of the Russian avant-garde. Those developments are guessed in all her projects. Zaha Hadid herself became a great experimenter.
Personal life of Zaha Hadid
The personal life of Zaha Hadid is not in the public domain. It is known that she did not create a family, that she did not have a child, that she lived not far from her London office in an ascetic apartment with avant-garde furniture, but without a kitchen.
Zaha Hadid died in Miami (USA) on March 31, 2016 from a heart attack.
Her life was filled with her work.
