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Actually, I am blinded by this light" Zaha Hadid's first words at the lecture. — SCI Arc Media Archive
"Zaha Hadid reviews her work at the AA with Rem Koolhaas, and, before that, with Leon Krier. She stresses her interest in the Russian avant-garde. She expresses her need to seriously engage with twentieth century culture. She describes her first independent projects after leaving the Office of... View full entry
When [Jonathan] Solomon asked Hadid about the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which features more than 100 works of contemporary design, including socially conscious works like Jeanne Gang's proposal to remake a Chicago police station in order to build trust between police and residents, the visitor damned the exhibition with faint praise.
"I think it's a cute show," she said ... The exhibition, she added, "doesn't give me an idea of what to expect in the next 10 years."
— chicagotribune.com
Hadid's comments on the Biennial resonated with what her office director and partner, Patrik Schumacher, had expressed earlier via a Facebook post, criticizing the lack of digital design work in favor of exhibitions that he said show "guilt and bad conscience" in the profession. After Hadid's... View full entry
A raft of museums, most backed by private money, are springing up in what is, for many, an unlikely cultural hub: Beirut, the capital of Lebanon [...]
The design competition launched on 1 October; the architect Zaha Hadid is on the jury along with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton-Jones of London's Serpentine Galleries.
Salamé, who founded the Aïshti fashion chain, invested $100m in funding a contemporary art museum, designed by the British architect David Adjaye, in Jal El Dib [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
Laura Amaya interviewed Giancarlo Mazzanti, founder and principal of El Equipo de Mazzanti. The two discussed "architecture for social inclusion...from a political point of view", play or leisure, and "an architecture made of parts...or open work". Meanwhile the latest editions of Deans List... View full entry
As the first sole woman to win the medal in its 167-year history (women have shared the prize with others before), Zaha Hadid said, "I am very proud to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal, in particular, to be the first woman to receive the honor in her own right. Part of architecture’s job is to... View full entry
In the headache-inducing whirlwind regarding Japan's New National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Zaha Hadid Architects and Japanese engineering company Nikken Sekkei announced their ineligibility to participate in the design-and-build competition for the stadium's redesign. Why? Because they... View full entry
In an architectural "hail Mary" move, Zaha Hadid Architects put out a 23-minute video stating their case for Japan to keep their embroiled design for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium. When Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced approximately five weeks ago that ZHA's design was being dropped... View full entry
Whenever one of the millions of buildings under construction flanking the High Line hit a certain height, the developer is required to put up a shed over the park [...] except, it seems, when it's for a building by [...] Zaha Hadid. Then it's not just a shed protecting passersby, it's a 112-foot long sculptural installation—in this case entitled Allongé—designed by Hadid to give a sneak preview of the swooping forms of her building, which has just hit High Line level [...]. — ny.curbed.com
Photos of ZHA's Allongé scaffolding/canopy by Scott Lynch. Head over to Curbed NY to see more images.The initial announcement of Hadid's High Line condo building on Archinect in 2013 was a topic not without much commentary. View full entry
Next week, the concrete pour will begin on Zaha Hadid Architect's new residential tower overlooking downtown Miami's Museum Park. The 62-floor tower, located at 1000 Biscayne Blvd., includes "museum-quality" town homes and three degrees of penthouses: half-floor, full-floor and single duplex. The... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects has been announced as the winner of the Danjiang Bridge competition. Sited at the mouth of the Tamsui River, the bridge will provide a critical link between several highways on Taiwan's northern coast.The Danjiang Bridge is intended to bring economic growth to Taipei's Port... View full entry
Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without her pushily hard-won, global celebrity? [...]
Hadid began a global strut in billowing drapery by Prada or Issey Miyake. She became the champion of an architecture that was more about personal ‘vision’ than public utility. [...]
From the air, Hadid’s 2022 World Cup stadium with its almond-shaped opening and labial folds looks bogglingly like giant pudenda.
— spectator.co.uk
Sure, roasting starchitects is fun, and – at its best – can volley constructive criticism towards those architects most visible in the public eye as "Architects", ideally improving the profession at large. And then there's a piece like The Heckler's, which discredits any otherwise pointed... View full entry
Dedicated to traditional climbing, the museum is first of all an extraordinary overlook: the volumes that protrude from the ground, like four large eyes wide open on a majestic landscape, seem to emerge from the earth’s bowels to invite us to admire the Alpine chains around, from the Zillertal to the Ortles to the Dolomites. — inexhibit.com
A tip of the hat to Riccardo Bianchini, who posted in the forums earlier this week some photos from the press opening of Zaha Hadid's Messner Mountain Museum in Plan de Corones, Italy. Named after the famous mountaineer, Reinhold Messner, the museum is the final of six museums planned by... View full entry
"I’m a huge fan of Zaha’s, I’ve always been. I would venture to say she’s one of the most talented architects of our time and of history in my opinion.
The kinds of shapes and the kinds of structures that she transcribes from her mind’s imagination – I think that Zaha’s designs are just like her buildings, they augment reality forever. And I feel like with the Supershell, she created, while using the dimensions of the shoe, cast shadows that weren’t necessarily there”
— Pharrell Williams
This isn't the first time the singer and architect have worked together – Williams referred to a pre-fab housing collaboration back in 2013. And his designs on associating with the architecture community were made clear at the AIA National Convention in 2014, where he delivered a keynote speech... View full entry
Zaha Hadid, the architect whose plans for the National Stadium have been scrapped, hopes to remain involved in the planning for the centerpiece for the 2020 Olympics, the Japan Sport Council said Thursday.
The council said Jim Heverin, a director of Hadid’s company, conveyed her wishes on a fact-finding visit to Japan following the cancellation. [...]
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Japan faces a ¥5.9 billion bill for the work done so far and contracts already signed.
— japantimes.co.jp
Despite Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pulling the plug on Hadid's stadium design last week due to the unforeseen astronomical costs, the Japan Sport Council is nonetheless on the hook now for ¥5.9 billion (nearly $48 million) for the work that had already been done so far by various... View full entry
This week on the podcast: Gehry's design for the Eisenhower memorial is finally approved, Zaha Hadid's Olympic Stadium in Tokyo gets cut-and-pasted into some very Japanese situations, and Peter Zellner, Principal and Design Lead of AECOM's Los Angeles architecture division, and founder of... View full entry
