Dame Zaha Hadid | Full Q&A | Oxford Union

well good evening everyone and thank you very much for that warm welcome tonight we are have the privilege of hosting Dame Zaha Hadid as usual I will start off with a few questions of my own before opening it up to the audience and for some of your own questions of which I am sure that there will be many so um things are thanking you once again very much for coming here and we have to come Museum Oh Zahraa recently you became the only woman ever to win the prestigious Royal gold medal but you of course have been honored in so many ways in so many countries was this a particularly significant honor for you are or all honours he received equal no I mean this obviously for me was very important because I chose to live in this country I chose to practice in this country I studied in England and in the UK so so I think it was very important to me that you know I am on in here so to speak and Bose is perhaps more significant because you were the first woman to which I didn't even know that I was the first woman to receive it another brisk as well you know the the gold medal I found difficult that was taken that long for a woman to receive an award like that we say find it difficult what do you mean surprising based on your experience in the industry I mean I'm I'm surprised I thought I mean I think there of course there were other woman who wanted but they were partnered with a male so you know they said considered sort of not in the same way so I was I didn't realize there was a statistic that says no woman had wanted I didn't know that and so is that because so when you say you're surprised I mean if you ever worked particularly with other people in the same way unsurprisingly it's taking that much time for a woman to receive an honor like the Godman when there are many practicing with human architects of course and and you've said that there will only be gender equality in the world of architecture when women are included in golfing days out and guys didn't turn that way I mean I don't I think it's very difficult I can say that personally it's very affirmative this day there are certain certain world I cannot be part of and and it makes it kind of difficult to be involved and I mean if I was doing a cultural building I think it's easier but I'm doing a corporate work or stuff like that which requires some smoothing and you know partying whatever it is you have to be part of the club and no matter what I'm not and maybe eventually it will change but and I'm talking about a okay I I think I'm sure is another country is different and does that mean therefore you prefer cultural work probably no I know I know mine doing either way doesn't make it kind of with me and the main difference between architecture and other forms of Arts is the practical element of the work what you do when you have to compromise your design for practicality I don't like the word compromise the style is that because you know I think that um you know we know we are kind of professional and we know that in every project you have to be quite kind of smart in the way you can interpret the work to suit the client or the requirements or the quantifiers of the city or planning whatever it is I've known for a long time that as long as I maintain the ideas the central idea to the project and I can adjust the work to suit then I think it's not income right sometimes some cases actually it makes the work better if you if we have to go around a certain problem so I think there is always a demand too and I think for a long time people do not respect the professional market and it was seen as a service and it was like the duty of the architect to always kind of dumb down the idea but I think you can still maintain a central idea but you can you can make it work so can you think a particular example to share with us I mean I think that for example when we very early on we were doing the vitro fire station I mean the budget was very small it was a kind of at the time the engineering was quite you know it was very difficult not difficult kind of ambitious in a structural project and you know we had to kind of really reduce the elements to only the most required elements so every element in the project act as a structural element and there was no other exercise s say you wanna come out there was no decorative elements so it was purely based on structure and requirement observation requirement and that you know what one can achieve these things for that but you know I think you come across it many times you know whether you know in project you have to change you have to reduce the budget I mean of course somebody that you reduce the budget by half you must we can't do it but if you can reduce it by a bit and you can and you just spoke about something from earlier in your career what's changed and has how you approach new projects if anything has anything changed as I approach things in the last little and of course you know in the office the team has changed I mean we were 10 people and now we are 400 people so the the dynamic is not the same you know and and also the work method has changed you know before we used to do clevis a a lot of sketching and model making and painting and now it's a lot of is done kind of through computer computer and not not because of the communities taking over just that it's a different method of work it might come up with a similar project but nothing is different but and also I was gleaming teamwork so and it's not that you know there's none of the hand of the master and then the others will work it out doesn't work like that it works like people as a team come together they put our days together and we test them out and see what works best and so you just spoke about the role of computers and that's changing methods through through which architects work there are times where you just sit there and get a piece of paper and start sketching because that's why only sometimes but I mean I don't think anybody can sketch nowadays you know I mean I don't know but I think that I mean I think it's a it's a dramatic change you know there was a lot of you taking a lot of time to master drawing and especially towards the late towards in kind of 90s late 80s and then nothing with the digital work there was a moment when the because I teach as well people can do both and even though I was both kind of analog and digital but I think now it's mostly digital nothing the method is different you know and you might reach a similar outcome you know but it's very different and dynamic in essence do you think people should be able to draw as well as we used to be able to you know I think it's a kind of a craft and I like drawing and I enjoyed the time when we all drew and made models on but I think it's it's very difficult to resurrect the craft you know it's like and also unless you do it extremely well and it's kind of innovative and it's advanced I think it becomes becomes it kind of almost like a you know doing an antique workshops you know so I think unless someone very consciously says there's a drawing you draw from beginning of the beginning of the first year in school and you know five years anybody can obviously work for another 10 years on drawing and then you master it I can't you know then if somebody starts again trying to mimic I mean a lot of schools trying to mimic certain periods of schooling in the 70s and 80s and its really doesn't work it's a bit nostalgic and as far as I'm concerned the whole drawing and painting workshops they say and work we did done its job you know what we're supposed to do and give us a kind of really a view on how to develop new ideas so that was achieved so and when you take on a new project obviously with architecture every new building has a site and with the surrounding buildings you try to fit in or gg the opposite you try to stand out neither actually I mean I think that the work the work emerged from a new kind of urban condition you know modernism try to look at kind of the idea of zoning which is kind of separating the programs and it was done with a tabla rasa which is an open palette and he starts from scratch and when I said being a student was the idea of looking at the kind of a really a very dense urban context and how to Philip and an accurate and urbanism within that domain so it is on one hand kind of it seems very new but on the other hand it is quite a construction context the world by without trying to mimic or imitate is surrounding so you draw kind of ideas or maybe certain things from the existing context or respond to it but it's not necessarily you know the best example is I mean there many product but Rome so exam the Rome project would say on one hand it's very new to the context and on the other hand it relied it kind of adjusted to every angle on the side so if you take so every line which Kings around relate to an existing geometry on the side so our next sense is very contextual is also what I call the field project it's not an object there's an urban project so it's a new field which is no longer just a single building the series of buildings in this case that kind of open so you lose many things in one go you would do layering which is leering like a archeology layer the project and also adjust it so and the idea came from that side but it does not look like the rest of the projects on the side if we may jump onto something else which was the design you had for the Japan 2020 Olympic Stadium so you spoken in no uncertain terms about the controversy surrounding that can you just explain to us how you were told that the bid that had been accepted was no longer going to be followed through well I mean Japan is a very the Japanese situation is a very interesting topic and we had one is projects three years ago and was there international competition with major architects you know from all over the world and you know moving to Japan there was one so we had a kind of agreement with Japan Sports Council we have a contract for the Germany work but it was always agreed that it wouldn't be always done with a Japanese firm because I didn't want to the Japanese firm not to be involved in this project so now so we are kind of almost a partner with a Japanese office and Japan to do the work on this project so we worked on it for another two years and and then they decided to go for a bid to price it and we recommended an open bid for many contractors even internationally they refused the only one that a bid with only two Japanese firms or whatever so they they they got the build a year ago and there was a certain price and of course there were ways to reduce the budget you wanted to but not limited to bridges the price they reduced the size of the stadium they liked on certain things they did not want they wanted everything they had already planned which is 80,000 feet and so on so we carried on they chose the contractor the contractor under the Steel's and in July we didn't we only heard on rarely on television I mean no one called us Mike the guy who worked for us in Japan called us and taught us at the Japanese Prime Minister had gone on television saying this project is cancelled that was the first you heard of it the motor GG response today i me of course we you know we tried everything to talk to him but there was no response when we went to Japan it was a kind of a blank so I think I mean I say that openly and I think you know I could be sued for it it was obvious that it's not about the budget and it's clearly obviously do not want a foreigner design in national stadium Japan and for me it's shocking because I've always liked Japan one of my face first big shows were in Japan my first publication ever was Japanese publication I have many close friends in Japan I assure you they're not my friends anymore all the architects whom I have supported like chewy ito and I've always respected Maki and neither sake and all these people they did not stop demonstrating and making you know petitions and so on but the irony of course somebody said that they all entered the competition and they lost okay so anyway so now they do an another limited competition between Ito and Kong Akuma and go and kuma wins it but he is using the design of our stadium which is not the exterior the design of the interior of the ball as the basis of the project because he's doing it with the contractor which was our contractor so it is necessary i scheme but it's covered with something else I mean I think it's you know I mean I don't know I'm not sure that other professions go through this maybe politicians but architects go through this quantum often I mean I personally find it very shocking so York says go through what cutoff Missouri's kind of this this you know you are spending three years on a project and then something is canceled there's nothing I can do it's done by government so I there's nothing much I can do you know so I think it's find it very shocking and non camaraderie behavior so it sounds like you don't want to work in Japan again I still wear Japanese clothes I said to myself I'm not going to wear Japanese again but that doesn't happen I know I mean I think I think it's a great country and but I think in this case it was I mean nobody's going to know the truth but I think it's it's a bit obvious actually um if I could also ask you about from one stadium to another so in Qatar so you've done stellar work and making sure that no one is in danger on your site and your research has been done and studies can't actually to make sure that in the stadium building everyone's safe why aren't other people doing that for other stadia in Qatar and do you not think it's something that everyone should I don't I don't think is any accidents on the stadium in Qatar I mean I think there is a kind of problem with with people here and the Qataris although they love the Qataris to buy half of London you know that's okay they have ambassadors and you know public political branches with them diplomatic relations there's some sort of thing about the Qatari you know 2020 whatever it is you know I mean you know I can I can voice an opinion about the workers in many places whether I can go there and I mean you know I'm not Angelina Jolie that to run around the planet trying to I mean I can voice an opinion and I think that I think to be fair to them there has been no this in Qatar on this areas so I'm not sure where this came from before that there were the demonstrations about the workers in Abu Dhabi you know I'm sure there's a problem with workers in many places you know if it's not there the housing problem is the things on site I think yes I think it's important to make sure that these things are taken care of I think it's very important that workers have very good living standards and you know these countries are kind of wealthy they can afford it but you know I I don't have I don't have the privilege to go around and and check out all the quality of the housing in every country and moving on to a final question for me for moving on to questions from the audience so you said one of the main differences over the last 30 years of your career is sort of 10 people and now it's 400 does it does that mean you're you can't be as involved in every project as much like as I said it for me it's not the same but no I'm just saying it's a very different dynamic you know we have a very good very big team of people I mean it's very different than yeah we were more like a graph of like a like a very small unit and of course we couldn't do all the work we do now you know we can do one particular time and and so it's quite different this is one project us I mean you know I can't I can't sit and do an every line in every project but I can you know I think I've taught for a long time I also run the office for a long time and I'm very good people to have Patrick Schumacher with me here with my father in the office I have some very good people who were with me for a long very long time and I don't have to spend a long time to expand to them everything and also it's not that you know they said it's not the master and the other people it's you know what's more but we all bring to the table as far as I'm concerned is that the effort on all of you involved and the team's is what matters then I am one single person I have of course the privilege of the writer Vito I can say I don't like it I mean people think I'm being very frivolous but you know but I don't like it means it's not right as far as I'm being said and but there's arguments all the time between especially me and the senior staff and and nothing but but of course you know I always want to push the idea as far as possible to get a very good result that's my ambition I mean I've spent a lot of time doing this because not because it's some sort of I mean when I said odd thirty years ago I never thought I'll be one no no you know I'll do anything I just I was more I really thought when I was school that there was another way of doing things and that the truth and I believed in progress and I think that if we do enough research and and and we can push the envelope and we can get better results and that's what I was wanted to do and and and I think that the whole experience of my career through through teaching and working and you know I do have luck and and almost although as a professional office but it's also studio we can explore ideas and I that is what I'm doing it for I mean that's what what I like about architecture and and I think we a launch has been discovered in the last thirty years through you know not through just computing but through a special research and I think that says it's been very exciting although hard breaking but well thank you very much before answering my question so when I'll over open up to questions from the floor and Percy didn't mention one particular building in Oxford so I'm sure there will be questions from the floor on that if we could please go for the member on the edge here yeah that's right hello an honor to have you here in Oxford with us I have question regarding the building just mentioned the st. Anthony's building that you built here in Oxford I was wondering what role the even though you said that sometimes it's not about imitating the surroundings but the existing geometries so I was wondering what role the existing geometries in the st. Anthony's College actually played in the sort of building of the very visually attractive you know structure that you put sir well I mean a most saying I have been to Santa Anas College for quite a few times before we're after to this project oh my Eugenie's here Eugene was the head of the college and also my brother went to went was a fella at st. Anthony's so I used to visit and I gave a lecture there my immediate reaction was to do a building which connects the two the two projects again so it was immediately kind of seen as a kind of a bridge but of course there was a tree which could not touch so but the advantage of this kind of work architecture is that it as its react responds to the side like just a gentle Bend of the bridge that's why it's called soft bridge to the two buildings and that was really so it was never seen as a building which will be imitating the two buildings but an insertion of a new project a new program into the college which is just bending around the tree thank you so much thank you a question for another question now if we please go to the member of the back in the black jacket hi thank you very much for coming to Oxford my question is about the extent to which you consider sustainability in your designing process and also your thoughts on the inclusion of non-traditional urban building materials like Adobe for example in the urban context thank you very much I know about it magic you cannot or did this is sustainability question well I mean I think the term is a very kind of popular topic I think is well I mean I I don't believe that sustainability could be achieved by you know stone buildings and small windows I think it's more important to really think about analysis ingenuity of kind of the thermal device which you've designed the building for you know I can't cut I can't show it on the with no images so of course we do think about and also I think now in terms of cooling and you know heating and as of the quality of the concrete they all have to me Caesarion materials but I'm not sure what the other thing was the material non traditional building materials so these of non-traditional material a quad light light for example designs that are used in the past like Adobe for example in the American Southwest or other regions thank you and I think that you know there has an incredible you know advancement and material technology and you know whether it's a in concrete or a glass or fiber concrete or even you know lack and word so they kind of a lot of advancement material material technology and which can achieve whatever you want to do I don't know that I don't be in the southwest what is that I'm sure I'm sure he'll catch reoffend ferocity but if I may jump in with a question at what stage does the you know what materials whose come into the process indeed how does the whole process work from start to finish to you initially come up with the design and well I mean I think now there's been a sort of a an interesting kind of thing between us and the engineers of course you have to come with an idea which but you have to have it the idea has to have some sort of sensibility about structure I mean I when I first started lecture for a while I went to this whole thing I want everything to float around I mean I didn't want it to land but I knew that it would have to land and therefore the way it London was very important and so the lightness away landed the the the way the structure works that it seemed as if it's floating was very important to to my sister early work and and so but we work on it together and also now that has to be very important structural element in the building so you have to know the logic of the of the structure I mean non engineer so the engineer will sort it out but they work with us at the same time and the same thing with the you know in the exterior for example in Baku where the the whole structure was like a space frame and steel kind of quite light but cladded and concrete fiberglass which made it possible to have kind of a seamless seamless texture and and it would actually seamless all the way to the floor although the material there was a slight change from the material of the cladding to the floor so it was non-slip but it looks like a seamless seamless material because it can allow this makes it very malleable and very sculptural because going to do a building which looks like a you know a landscape and the idea of the boundaries are also discussed that is the boundary line is not near so demarcated between the ground and the wall and therefore the Nama tree was very suitable and and what we did we did use institute concrete and they had invented a new thing called something like slow what does it call self compacting self compacting concrete which is - which is dealing with kind of also round surfaces so that was all and such you which means you porch on site you don't it's not be fabricated and what so their variant and the stations in Innsbruck there were vacuum formed glass pieces to look like icicles so the structure the base the the main structure is the ground is concrete the superstructure the other structure above is in steel and it's clouded with other materials so you need to as an architect have some idea of the logic of this of the engineering but of course the engineers lack in the pool in London and they work on the structure does that mean you're always learning when you find out about new materials yeah you have to always kind of constantly learn I don't know too much I mean I have lots of people doing this and but I think there's lots of people who are interested in the fabrication and I mean of course we also test ideas in publication and furniture and kind of mending technology with it mill tables and aluminium or Mills and out of plexi or vacuum-formed you know vacuum-form pieces so only I mean you have to understand all the technology was to do with kind of automobile technology making parts aircraft all this actually now you can use in architecture you know and I think that's what makes you know makes it very move away from the idea of repetition like making flat panels repetitive you can actually customize things for every single building thank you for another question from the audience now if you can please get an adjuster you mentioned your teaching activity several times and I started with you in Vienna and I think there's a lot of students here so I would love to hear some more about your teaching experience what do you like about teaching what do you get out of it and also how do you think architectural education would have to change well I mean I've taught for 30 years I started not continuously I started teaching at they a the year I finished school and I taught there for 10 years and then I've been teaching in America you know jail and Harvard and Columbia but I also had a kind of as a professorship in Vienna which I just stopped this year for 15 years which is over it was very I mean with my most recent experience and it was a very exciting experience for me I always enjoyed teaching I I've toured with Patrick for many years and and people always think you know people always ask me I don't know and who don't not an education they always said oh you know teaching because it give me some idea when it that's not really the reason you're teaching I think it's a very reciprocal experience and also to teaching you can it contested in ideas it's not that you want to test them it's not they're not like a series of guinea pigs but you certain certain ideas which are very suitable in terms of Education to test certain things I don't believe only in the kind of I believe in that and not only in economic metaphysical project or metaphoric but more a project where it eventually could be achieved as a as a building and I think it was very importantly when I was a student that this idea of pushing certain ideas would seem quite extreme to the mainstream I was the most important so I think testing and these ideas and schools are very exciting and and I believe also that people under profession should also teach because there there should not be this big gap between the student body and the profession they're not - not necessary two worlds the run of ideas and the worm of practice should be very similar or connected and that's why I like teaching thank you for your question look for another question now from Lawrence if we could please gates you remember in the light top hi there and I was just wondering if you ever got the equivalent the architects equivalent of writer's block where you don't feel like your hearts fully in a project and then how do you overcome that person me and it's always happens well I I think about a project all the time and so I'm when I was a student yes of course he's sitting on their nests can you blanked out and you don't know what to do I don't know I don't find so difficult now I you have to just keep on at it I mean the exercise of sketching in your mind not only by your hand is there is a practice you know it's like you know practically violin or whatever whatever it is any skill you achieve is to practice I think I mean just even thinking about a topic it's real practice interesting you just said you're always thinking about a project does that make it difficult to switch off do you even want a special no I don't switch unfortunately you know you know it's there all the time thank you a question doesn't mean that I don't have fun but while you're having fun they're still thinking about thanks for your question and if we can outlook for we go just say in the gray jumper just on the edge chef's you're currently designing a project mass housing in Mexico so how do you convince the real-estate developer there that they had plans to build high-rise towers but it ended up with you designing high-density low-rise low-cost housing there so haha what shared thought process in convincing the developer in almost changing the product mix that he or she had conceptualized for that site I know Monterrey yeah Monterrey he answered the question Valley boy you might be not knowing more about this one than me we in terms of the the idea of I rise I mean no I mean the the owner of that land was looking to build high-rise but by now zaza did firm is designing low-rise and high-density units there so haha what what is the thought process in change well I mean we did that we did a scheme I mean I didn't know he wanted a high-rise nobody told us okay we we we could we looked at aside and we created a scheme which we thought was creating interesting set of exterior spaces and garden spaces and public spaces and we worked with the series of slap I wouldn't call them low-rise they're still quite high but they're long slabs and create a very animated beautiful scene in the background with a beautiful landscape actually but yeah nobody told us that this guy wanted towers well thank you for your question and wherever you're getting information from is clearly good thank you if we could look for another guys another problem in my office they they don't tell me everything - per everything imagine it's quite difficult to keep everything and all right thank you for your question if we could please go right to the back in the corner thanks hi do you have any projects or buildings that have a particularly personal significance for you you've done in the past now I think that the project we're doing Iraq would be personally interesting for me you know and I think there are all the products and just me but I've been going for example if we ever get to do the Parliament in Iraq that would be quite significant thank you for your question and if we could now look just here on the end I was just wondering what advice would you give to an aspiring architect who wanted to go into the industry and they started that has this person have started yet I mean after days before starting architecture in the middle of architecture would let's say you were studying architecture at university and then you want to after some experience go into the industry what advice would you give well I think is that you have birth in you it's sorry it's friends friend no it's friend a friend of yours and sorry um well I think first of all do the best this person should do the best they can whether in school and and and then find the best office which they can relate to go then get experience and I mean there is no there is no real magic it's it's really hard work if you want to do well as an architect you have to work hard I mean I don't know anyone Ansel I mean we all spend long hours you know doing my video so that's the only that's the only advice I can give you know see the world travel read look around nearest president and you know I think that's it so that was just you get your inspiration from all sorts of things well I mean I you know I mean I mean I think you know for example we were students we should go on what they call uni unit trips that would take you on a trip to somewhere it's funny interesting when I was of the AAA alkylated Association instead I would buy going to like Paris or Rome to look at the links then the school became so kind of esoteric I really went to landscape they would take them to strange the strangest places in the world but they were still very inspiring so I think inspiration is very important you know looking at things which I mean I you know my first trip to New York I was it was amazing you know because I'm suddenly realize a lot of the ideas one had they had already been done and to know how they had done them and so that was very exciting you know I mean I went my only kind of career went to Brazil because I also then found out what are the best work and that modernist period which was done whether it's Brazil or Germany or whatever so he seen anything that objects planning is a kind of a sort of part student Russia for me knowing to on a trip to Moscow and San Petersburg not only because the work that was of the various periods was very exciting you know the place was so weird I mean it was we had the weirdest periences of our lives in Moscow and st. Petersburg I mean it was just the most bizarre it's not going to North Korea now it would be equally strange now going to East Berlin and one of the wall was there you know was crazy but I mean my first trip to China was an 81 before it completely opened up so all these things are you know I mean the Chinese trip for me was a very seminal experience because I was before that I wasn't so interested in landscape after China was very interested in landscape and also the way they manipulated to examine the Chinese garden it might not look like Chinese garden my work but it was very influenced by that trip so I think research in all these different ways you know always helps helps you make sure you tell your friend and for another question now please if we go to the number in the glasses here yeah they're bearing in mind that most fewer buildings are defined by the advancements in technology nowadays and they use a lot of a computing advancements in bearing structures in other architects very famous they don't use that as much say for instance beta Centauri and I think that is a very in tune of nowadays culture how would you say that your architecture will be reviewed by future architectural historians as a characteristic of our time I don't know it I read I know or do you think that your architecture is is going to be the when people look back is like what our time the legacy of our time because I think is if you if you see today is a lot of fizzy find by technology and I think that your buildings have a lot of technology or are a product to a certain extent off technology so I think that is our more in tune of other art architecture out there I don't know I mean it's a flattering question but and if it was rhetorical I agree with you that our work would be seen as of our time and the representing over time and be part of architectural history whereas some of the other work which is could have been done 50 years ago 60 years ago 40 years ago would not be counted and considered because I think I history of architecture is only the history of innovations and key radical innovations and they account and everything else will be forgotten so so I think that's that's something to reflect on I think we believe in progress and architecture is not excluded from this sometimes people think it's something which is more eternal and more timeless but it's also of our time as sighs evolves the build environment eats the world with that and needs to innovate and we adapted respecting new dynamics and also utilizing on the opportunities of new technologies so we strongly believe in that and but it's still an embattled approach and there are still others and many others who don't think so I mean I for example in order to reflect on that question if you look at what's happening in London now it's it is a tragedy that the work is going on there could have been done in the 60s you know with that any of the current knowledge and advancement technology and and and I think that's a real shame that if you if you survey what's happening is it's a bit strange thank you look for another question please there's someone kind of waving there hi I was wondering to which extent has a promote ism define your work didn't you repeat that question to which extent has suprematism define your work a great deal I mean my first implement was a Russian avant-garde and suprematism and I think too that I don't know is the only work and has a kind of fragmentation and flotation and liberation from from gravity and but I think the fundamental thing was the breaking of the system and so and composition the idea of the open composition was really stand from suprematism thank you for your question if we could please come down here oh thank you for coming jokes for it I'm at design of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium could you hear on you know you point out the current design of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium is just similar to a interior design is very similar to your design breaching the intellectual light is very huge issue could you about your opinion about this kind issue I think there is a problem of copyright I mean there is a problem of copyright what we'll do about it and annoying it but I think there's a problem I've been even I mean you know I think that from when something is duplicated as a copyright issue there in architecture unfortunately you can't always do much about people copy it and you know there's not much you can do about it I mean you can do that with design if you somebody covers a chair you can do that with photography and can do that with the you know with the with any answer an architecture can just change one item but I think in this case there isn't there is a copyright issue thank you a question look a final couple of questions from the audience so if we could gauge the member there he'll currently let you out if you keep your hand up high I was running considering that more and more people are moving to cities sort of unsustainable rate in a moment I was wondering what sort of problems you think architects are going to have to come over and then in the coming years and in the future like I mean I think in other cities are getting more congested there is a kind of initiative hyperdensity but I think it's not a nothing it's a necessarily a very big problem I mean we have to deal with it I think the thing which has to be dealt with is the city's lack had it was the streets and transportation and you know these are problematic and I think then historic city is very difficult to you know like demolish and make streets but I think there has to be a way of dealing with with habitants hyperdensity I mean I know there was a move in the next twenty thirty years ago to go out into the green fields and expand in the city and there was now a reversal of that and I think the another thing which is happening is that people especially the young people want to be in the city there and to be in active spaces they want to go to the cinema they want to go the museum they want to go to concert they want to go out I mean I'm sure the same in Oxford but in London you know the amount of eateries and bars and restaurants massive everywhere so the urbanism is is extended from central London to all the areas of kind of around it so you can see this this kind of desire to be in the city and therefore I think you have to accommodate I mean if I talk about London specifically where it's very low-rise you can think of a much higher density higher rise City the ambition now is to do in London high-density low rise which means there was no absolute gaps there's no open space there's no public domain is no public areas because it's all very squashed and so I think that one has to kind of think about much more kind of transparent I rise to allow for some sort of reading space on the ground thank you a question look for a final question now please if we could come to remember her that thank you what do you consider the most challenging part of designing and Opera House or Performing Arts Centre in general I suppose and when we've done a quite a few Opera House the first experience of course was not a very happy one which was in Cardiff but it was really change was the acoustics how to design a very kind of energized acoustic space and how do you Howard the the theater or the Opera would seem how do you place it within the context of the city so there are kind of various ways of doing it but I think acoustically I would say that would be the most challenging part because you know it was always there's a whole issue in discussion in Opera whether symmetry is the best or asymmetry and you know I think they're kind of one can test that out and the thank you for your question and I'm afraid that's all we have time for this evening but thank you very much if you'd all please remain seated as our leaves the chamber please join me in thanking once again names are heard you

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 283,317

Rating: 4.9353714 out of 5

Keywords: Oxford, Union, Oxford Union, Oxford Union Society, debate, debating, The Oxford Union, Oxford University, Daim Zaha Hadid, architecture, pritzker architecture prize, RIBA gold medal, Lacoste, Building, olympics, 2020 olympics, Japan, Tokyo

Id: k0gLhcPOtdM

Length: 49min 43sec (2983 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 14 2016