Zaha Hadid
avant-garde

Zaha Hadid (b. 1950) is British of Iraqui origin, and has revolutionised architecture through her radically new conception, in a departure from any existing typology. Her extraordinary personality and her originality have earned her star status, which is unique in the history of women architects.

She started out as a mem ber of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and is driven by the same ideas as Rem Koolhaas, i.e. creating close relationships between theoretical research, architectural practice and cultural contexts, at every level. That philosophy continued when she set up her own practice, a few years later and taught in the most prestigious universities. These constant challenges in the face of the traditional frontiers of the discipline, her experimental work and her visionary aesthetics have inspired many architecture students, particularly at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Hambourg and Vienna.

The fire station for Vitra (Weil am Rhein 1993) brought her to the attention of a wide audience.

A few years ago, Zaha Hadid’s career really took off. The design of the North Terminal at Hoenheim ( Strasbourg) earned her the European Union Prix for Contemporary Architecture awarded by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation. Now the commissions are rolling in: in the United States, Europe and Asia: the National Contemporary Arts Centre in Rome, ski jump at Innsbruck, Scientific Centre in Wolsburg, the Guggenheim Museum in Taichung, Taiwan, the maritime terminal in Salerno, high-speed train station in Naples, the Canton Opera, the Riverside Museum in Glasgow and the French Line Centre in Marseille.