Interview: Zaha Hadid / CityLab 2015

it's it's an amazing year for you you've just been awarded the RBA gold medal you've you've had a an amazing career spanning cities around the world designing extraordinary architecture can we start by talking about what cities you think are getting the mix right are doing architecture well what are your favorite cities well I'm in my favorite series I'm I mean I'll of course I like London a lot and because I live here I mean I've always loved New York I don't think it's an issue which cities do do it well I think these cities all have the major cities all have similar problems and I think problems and also I think that there was a major I think change in the last let's say 20 years while before many people move to the countryside you have I think now most of these have more than Civic Asian now the more people propels to a city centers it's a kind of network city people want to socialize they want to meet each other they want to do things their networking their working so I think that propels so you need to do it to do with the idea of justification how it deal with how do you deal with this and what what do you think your approach would be if you were to take if you were to design a whole city as opposed to a building what do you think with the essential ingredients be I don't think it's possible not right these days to really design a whole city but I think you should have a I mean I I suppose in in London anyway you would think that you will deal with the idea how dealing with high-rise and where do you place it it seems a bit random where they are placed and I think there is a move of high-density no high-rise which makes the size very dense and also doesn't allow for any public domain or Civic zone to entity sites so they are become much more like very old fat very fortified and maybe there's a reflection on how Berlin was developed after the the world came down which is now 25 years so I think is these are these I think these are the issues and when New York doesn't have the problem because it has a high-rise in it you can build towers more or less everywhere but but I think you also have to deal with the with the open space with a invent parks or and therefore the presence of the public domain is very important in these buildings is the social mix important to in terms of affordability I mean we talk about them and I I think that you know I don't think it should be based on zoning and if such a people's living center places and I was done I think it should be I'm not sure the housing the housing project in London works or anywhere else I mean I think it does work better maybe in European cities because they have much more committed to social housing and but I think in London there's a I find it problematic so we talked about that that I mean I don't know I'm sure there's a lot of relocation of people and from social housing which we can develop as kind of commercial projects and I don't know where they are being moved to I don't I don't know no I I think you know doing kind of even dense social housing and then a density would be quite attractive mm-hmm so very dense high density well I think it needs to be doesn't have to be highlighted we don't need it I think there's pressure on developers in London to make high-density because the land is so expensive it's like a bit I mean it one can Allies on in the same way when if you look at Japan Tokyo 20 years ago - very similar problem very expensive land prices very expensive buildings and you know they don't even develop 2 meter buildings because the land was so precious so I think one can learn these lessons from other places do you think conservation has a place in the making of a city is it important to preserve it's it's a you need to have a twist on conservation I don't know I think something should be done with that thing you need to do them ie to do them in an interesting way and I mean if you look at Venice which is of course very stunning beautiful city but it's preservation and conservation led to it being quite you know sleepy and and except for the time when you have the Venice Biennale and the film festival and so on like that but you know the rest of the time is very beautiful but I think it has no growth so if you want to city grow you need to have space for phoniness you can't just you know keep everything the same are there emerging ideas and architecture that you're excited about um I mean I think the you know the technology has made made possible to do thing which are which have a level of complexity which you couldn't do it for and I think it is very exciting I think there was a very great run for the less in the last 10 years but you know the pragmatist when I call the Brecker not because they're pragmatic or the conservative element is always lurking in the background to combat any new change and I think it's a shame because there's such if you compare what's happening in to architecture technology is there to kind of worlds apart and we're not using this these innovations in a positive in a great way and all over the place and you talked recently about about London about a feeling like the new buildings going up are very ordinary not they they wasn't made but I mean there's not something I think that there are great size in the city especially decides over the all they're kind of rare link and these new kind of enormous size and I think they should have another take if we talk about sustainability which I know Ricky Burdette mentioned earlier it is that has that become a kind of lip service in architecture I mean is there is there such thing as a green building I think it's very important that we pay attention to sustainability and but I think it's very important to do it in a very interesting way because not just using certain materials or doing certain things I think it's also in the way you organize a project you know I think that's very important so I think it's very important to do that when people you know people throw their words around because they are the right words but you know but I think it's very important to pay attention and what when you say organize a project well I think it's you know it's not just using everything it's like if you in the way you allow the product to have certain light or shadow or you know how you make the openings on how you construct the buildings you know how they are done in the composition they all have impact on sustainable so more in the fabric of the building also also in technology I mean in the way of course the most money where you need your cool how you use the right materials I mean a Cosi something's also very important do you think the infrastructure of our cities do you think there's enough thought about the movement of people in and out of I really don't think so I mean I was in New York last week that traffic is absolutely unbelievably long and and I do travel by car lot and London I know it's not fashionable but I really can't cycle but you know it's it's maybe the systems are good but there is so much traffic in London and and all these big cities that you need to think of transportation I'm not sure it's better more to Bligh's or more more some other some new invention and movement I don't know what it but Italy I think it's a problem do you have a solution no man I don't know I don't I mean I I mean now I cry I mean I often cross the embankment and now there's a kind of bicycle highway which is nice for the cyclists but the rest of the traffic is a mess so I was think maybe there should be an elevated psychopath or is needs to be on or something something else I know how you discourage carpooling I know how you discourage so many cars in the city we've talked about women in architecture before it's something that I work on and you are the most famous woman architect in the world your office is 40% women what do you think needs to change to enable more designers female designers to rise well I mean I think that term it's as you know it's very tough for women and but you know it's it's improved a lot in the last 20 30 years is a lot better I think part of the problem you know I I feel it's continuity when women can take some time off you know there is the prejudice you know I don't see it no but I think there is virtuous I'm that's it against me but not I get not a setting in the people in my office so I think it needs continuity and encouragement from the friends of family the colleagues office for these women to to excel in the practice do you think the female architecture is respected by the construction industry I don't know I can't say it's I think I have a difference I don't know I know that 10 to 20 years ago they were not but I think you have many more you know project architects for women management who are women clients and women you know I think it's to improve that situation alarmed if you wanted to give advice to an emerging architect someone coming up it to challenge them about the way that they approach their architecture or design what would you say challenge someone young its beginning I mean I always say the same thing I mean you know I think that there is no trick but hard work and unruly educating yourself and continuously it gives you enormous confidence to combat whatever difficult you might come across and so it's not away it's difficult to to do it but you need to just be constantly on the alert I wanted to ask you because your buildings are extraordinary they are novel in their design in their form and they are experimental do you think every building in a city can be extraordinary no I think that you know you can have a lot of project which are generic you know I always think that we need to relook at the master planning of cities because I think the the way the geometry of the land is would be organized will impact on how extraordinary it is and so we are still dealing with a similar system you know Street patterns and kind of not a grid but relatively kind of building the street so I think it least needs to be if you want more public domain and more porosity on the ground you need to organize the ground and the ground nothing is a very important domain so you know that's what one has to do is that about getting architects more involved in city making that master planning who talks I think that you know master planning urbanism and architecture should be much more connected you know I don't I don't believe in this thing as you do a master plan and someone else there's something else and there's another layer but I think it needs to be start from that that the master plan the urban is is very connected to each other and then at the same time with envisaging what the buildings would be like I think it also doesn't have to be totally homogeneous it could be done by different hands so would we've got a lot of mayor's in the office today or sorry in the office and they in the audience today if we wanted to to challenge them to to work with an architect or what would you challenge them to do to bring architects into their team or to to engage someone else you're just kind of to have kind of forward thinking and to engage with maybe a group of people who can look into the future and and depict what what is needed or what how it should be done in terms of the master plan in terms of infrastructure the things we can I'm friends one of all these things and finally what is your project in your career that you are most proud of I know it's very difficult to say I'm nothing you know I know Vitra was our first building I was very proud of it you know I love the wrong project because I think it took a long time in the making it's also very contextual at the same time bringing you the project in Baku is amazing and we've done recently this year some very very tiny project like the building in Oxford and they're very different and we've been very lucky we've done you know infrastructure like the bridge in Abu Dhabi the bridges in other places we've done railway stations which are very small projects in like in the level of kind of design and and we've done master plan so we've been very lucky to have a very big variety of programs and you don't have a favorite not really I like that I said it's how you go on and off them so no I don't I mean I can't say I have I mean I they each have an aspect to me which is which I like obviously yeah I think I think I like Roman Baku roman back Rome being the maxi ya the massing yes because of its position in the slobbing because it was a very conditional project at a particular time in my career we wonder salivary no way is a very interesting moment in my career and I like wolves burg which is a great project and I think many of them are and now we're doing now we're doing these towers and residential buildings in New York and and of course I shouldn't forget this the Janna project waa which are extraordinary because to build you know I know half a million square meters of office space in one go was was amazing people don't often refer to your work as contextual would you argue it is contextual your work it's not well it's a tech this is contextual in a particular way you know I think that I don't think I mean people think oh you don't respect their context but it depends on the situation and and in China the context would have chain would change so there is no context or there is a connect which is different and and not not everyone Jonathan this particular developments so it's very difficult to to say I'm in New York if you build it's contextual because you have the grid which combines all the sides the same with Miami they have another kind of grid and you have the water so but the reason I say Roma's contextual is because every line in Rome you know in Iran project adjusts to the existing geometry of the sides and they're not going to randomized but but you know I think that we have to we have to sometimes start from a new palette on your plate and invent a context which these things go on well I think that's all our time for today thank you very much thank you thanks

Channel: AtlanticLIVE

Views: 27,503

Rating: 4.9672132 out of 5

Keywords: architecture, women, london, citylab

Id: cF136hWtDXw

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2015