The Queen of Curves : Part 1

[Music] the queen of curves that is the term used by the guardian to describe za hadid taking the world by a storm zahadi or should i say damesa hadid had become one of the most influential women in the world and one of the most recognizable architects with bold ideas and a strong will she has designed some of the most iconic buildings in the world today but what led to her becoming the queen of curves and how did this queen build her kingdom well to know that let's take a few steps back to meet her as a little princess [Music] zaha hadid was born on 31st october 1950 in baghdad iraq her father mohammed al-hajj hussain hadid was a wealthy industrialist from mosul he co-founded the national democratic party in iraq and served as minister of finance after the overthrow of the monarch in 1958 her mother wajiha el sabunji was an artist right from her childhood the seeds of design and architecture were sown in her mind she herself recalls her childhood trips to the ancient sumerian cities in southern iraq and how they had sparked her interest in architecture but architecture was not her first choice of major fast forward a few years when it's time to decide what to study in college she picked mathematics and enrolled in the american university of beirut right from a young age she had been very very interested in math we would play with math problems just as we would play with pens and paper to draw math was like sketching her love for maths geometries fractals and curves is something we see in numerous of her works today post that in 1972 is when she finally moved to london to study at the architectural association school of architecture this was the turning point in her life decision to study at the aaa would become one of the most crucial events in her life not only because a is a great school it surely is but once there she met many of her contemporaries at the aaa school of architecture za hadid studied with the likes of prem kulhas elias angelis and bernard shumi tangelis described her as the most outstanding pupil he ever taught we called her the inventor of the 89 degrees nothing was ever at 90 degrees she had spectacular vision all the buildings were exploded into tiny little pieces he recalled that she was less interested in details such as staircases the way she drew a staircase you would smash your head against the ceiling and the space was reducing and reducing and you would end up in the upper corner of the ceiling she couldn't care about tiny details her mind was on the broader picture when it came to the joinery she knew we could fix that later she was right in her fourth year at university hadi designed a hotel for hungerford bridge on the river themes in london known as the malay witch tectonic executed as an acrylic painting inspired by the works of russian artist kazimir malevich according to her it was very anti-design it was almost a movement of anti-architecture even after she had become an established and an award-winning architect critics continue to recall the ingenuity and influence of this early design just think about it years after you graduated after you become such a famous architect people are still talking about your thesis design she was that good hadith finally graduated in 1977 with a diploma prize at the ceremony rem kulas described the architect as a planet in her own orbit she soon went on to work at oma with kulas and zengelis and even became a partner at the firm finally in 1980 she left oma to form her own london-based firm zaha hadid architects [Music] now even though she established a firm back in 1980 she didn't build her first project until the 1990s now imagine that a decade with no built work it wasn't like she wasn't working zaha had actually become very well known for her sketches and paintings during this time and also during this time she had become an academician she then began her career teaching architecture first at the aaa and then over the years at the harvard graduate school of design cambridge university the university of chicago the hostel for this place the university of illinois at chicago and columbia university she earned her reputation early with her lecturing and colorful and radical early designs and projects which were widely published in architectural journals but remained largely unbuilt in 1983 hadid gained international recognition with her competition winning entry for the peak a leisure and recreational center in hong kong this design a horizontal skyscraper established her aesthetic while her works were significantly admired they were deemed too radical for construction she actually came close to having one of her projects realized when she won a competition to design an opera house in cardiff wales even though her design was chosen as the best by the competition jewelry the project was termed unfeasible and the commission was given to a different architect now the reason i specifically wanted to stress upon this period of her life was to emphasize on the fact that all that she was doing finally led to who she became in this generation we have been used to getting things faster and faster but a lot of times to get what you really want takes practice focus and most of all patience it may take time but it will come zaha's reputation in this period rested largely upon her teaching and the imaginative and colorful painting she made of her proposed buildings she got even more known in 1988 when she was chosen to show her drawings and paintings as one of the seven architects chosen to participate in the exhibition deconstructivism in architecture curated by philip johnson and mark wigley at the new york museum of modern art so this a conference at the date in london and a press coverage of her work began to not only get her name out into the architecture world but allowed people to associate a particular style of architecture with hadith it was right here at this exhibition that za hadid met patrick schumacher schumacher first heard zaha when he was a student i thought zaha was the most brilliant the most approachable and the most honest she was already a hot star on the scene and had established something that i thought was thrilling i wanted to participate in it because she was a kind of great original genius who had surpassed her teachers in my view but also so that i could contribute to embedding this into a historical trajectory so people around zaha could already see her genius but now it was time to show the world finally she got the chance to build her very first project raul felbaum was the president director general of the swiss furniture firm vitra in 1993 he invited hadid to design a small fire station for the factory finally her work could now come to life she designed a structure made of raw concrete and glass composed of sharp diagonal forms colliding together in the center the design was an instant hit even before it was built her design started showing up in architectural magazines around the world the buildings as in her paintings carry a powerful sensation of movement although the vitra fire station would ultimately come to serve a different function than it was originally designed it nonetheless represents a significant milestone in the career of zahadir in realizing a proposal she proved that she was capable of moving past her reputation as a paper architect to create architectural space that was as functional as it was radical and even though hadid went on to create some of the most revolutionary structures in the years to come her vitra fire station remains one of her most notable projects [Music] you

Channel: BlessedArch

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Keywords: zaha hadid, zaha hadid documentary bbc, zaha hadid documentary film, zaha hadid architecture documentary, zaha hadid architects, how to get a job at zaha hadid, zaha hadid aa, zaha hadid vitra fire station, zaha hadid interview, blessedarch, blessed arch, rishabh wadhwa, blessedarch zaha hadid, zaha hadid architecture, zaha hadid design, zaha hadid buildings

Id: azPkJcwv04E

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021