Person to Discover by Anna M. Lewis

Contemporaryaha star ZHadid aha Hadid is one of the most celebrated working . Among her Zachievements, she designed the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was called “the most important American building to be completed since the Cold War” by . But Hadid nearly quit architecture in defeat just before her career took off.

10 www.odysseymagazine.com Architects Person to Discover by Anna M. Lewis designed the Haydar Aliyev Center in with fluid, continuous lines.

Early father, Mohammed, was a leading Influences liberal Iraqi politician. Her mother, Zaha Mohammed Hadid, born Wajiha, was from a wealthy on October 31, 1950, in , family and taught Zaha how to draw. , was raised in an intellectual Hadid attended Catholic school. family, where education and the Though taught by nuns, the students understanding of other cultures were and their religions were quite diverse. paramount. Her parents Hadid said in an interview with were both from Newsweek, “the Muslim and Jewish Mosul, Iraq. girls could go out and play when Hadid’s the other girls went to chapel.” When she was 16, she was sent to Switzerland for a year and then to London to study. Growing up in a region known as the cradle of civilization had an enormous impact on Hadid. Her world was filled with living history, including picnic trips to the ancient city of Samarra in southern Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet. When Hadid was 11, she was

www.odysseymagazine.com 11 Person to Discover fascinated by photos of the Marsh , inhabitants of the marshes of southern Iraq who live in arched homes constructed of reeds. When her father took her to visit these places, she knew that she wanted to become an . She recalled in , “My father took us to see the Sumerian cities. Then we went by boat, and then on a smaller one made of reeds to visit villages in the marshes. The beauty of the landscape—where sand, water, Hadid’s firm is international, indeed: Opera reeds, birds, buildings, and people House in and Bergisel all somehow flowed together—has Ski Jump in Austria (below). never left me.” The area was in the region of Sumer, where architecture first began in Aesthetic degree in mathematics. 3000 b.c. A conception of Her family left Iraq after what is beautiful There were other or artistically the rise of the dictator influences on Hadid’s sound Saddam Hussein design aesthetic as well. She and the beginning of described to the Sunday Times Iraq’s war with Iran. Hadid Magazine how an architect friend of moved to London and became a the family—the son of her father’s student at the Architectural best friend—was asked to design Association School of Hadid’s aunt’s house. The young Architecture. At the man created an architectural model school, students were that was stationed in Hadid’s home, left on their own to and it fascinated her. She recalled, design projects, mentored taught at the AA School “I was very young, and I was very by teachers who were of Architecture. Most of her intrigued by this thing. I might sometimes world-renowned designs were conceptual, but her have thought it was a doll’s house. architects. Hadid sought help first building was built in 1994—the But—my mother had great taste, we from , a legendary Fire Station in Germany. The got this new furniture—Italian, late architect from and a design looks like a bird in flight fifties, fantastic furniture. I was very Pritzker Prize winner. She admired with its sharply angled planes. The intrigued by all this. I was beginning his bold designs, which pushed the building was well received by critics. to see things that were different.” limits of shape and incorporated Despite a successful start, Hadid flowing forms of concrete. thought about quitting architecture From Student After graduation, Hadid joined in 1995. Although her design for to Architect her teacher at his an ultramodern opera house on In 1968, Hadid went to college at firm called OMA (Office of Modern Bay in the United Kingdom the American University in Beirut, Architecture). She opened her own won a competition, the design was , and got a bachelor’s architectural practice in 1980 and ultimately rejected by a panel of

12 www.odysseymagazine.com Person to Discover judges who said it was flawed by Raw, Vital, woman and, at 54, the youngest “uncertainties.” She told the London and Connected architect to receive this award. Evening Standard, “It was such a Hadid’s architectural designs tend to Then in 2010 and 2011, Hadid was depressing time. I didn’t look very have fluid shapes, and the buildings awarded the Royal Institute of depressed maybe but it was very appear to flow effortlessly into their British Architects dire. I made a conscious decision building sites. She feels that her for excellence in architecture. not to stop, but it could have gone designs are best shown through For the 2012 Olympics, Hadid the other way.” She thought about paintings rather than architectural designed the dramatically curved becoming a painter or a teacher. drawings. Appearing to morph and London Aquatics Centre, the first Her design practice took a change shape as one moves through thing people saw as they entered gigantic leap when Hadid won the the space, her buildings take on Olympic Park. competition to design the Rosenthal a science fiction–like feel. The Zaha Hadid has risen to the Center for Contemporary Art in advent of computer-aided design top of her field, also finding time Cincinnati. Her first commission in allowed architects and engineers to to teach at ’s the United States was also the first realize out-of-this-world buildings. Graduate School of Design, the American museum designed by Engineering the designs required University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, and many other universities around the world. In 2012, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to architecture (so technically her name is Dame Zaha Hadid). Hadid is firmly committed to her unique style. She told The Guardian, “As a woman, I’m expected to want everything to be nice, and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don’t design nice buildings—I don’t like them. I like the architecture to have Galaxy Soho in has some raw, vital, earthy quality.” no corners, referencing a About her future as an architect, classical Chinese design. Hadid has said, “I started out trying to create buildings that would a woman. Other high-profile projects substantial time and money, but sparkle like isolated jewels; now that Hadid designed include the slowly clients were showing they I want them to connect, to form Car Park Terminus in , the were ready to invest in Hadid’s work. a new kind of landscape, to flow Bergisel Ski Jump in Austria, the On May 31, 2004, Hadid was together with contemporary cities BMW Central Building in Germany, awarded architecture’s most and the lives of their peoples.” the interiors of the Hotel Puerta prestigious award, the Pritzker, Anna M. Lewis is the author WOMEN America in Spain, the Ordrupgaard for her body of work and OF STEEL AND STONE: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Museum extension in , contributions to architecture, at Designers, Chicago Review Press, and the Phaeno Science Centre the State of St. January 2014. This article was abridged in Germany. Petersburg, . She was the first from her book.

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