CHEPOS: ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid was one of the most famous architects of our time and was probably the most famous female architect ever. Her daring designs faced criticism at first, but now they have become an inspiration for many aspiring architects. Not many architects could do what she did, as each design was as innovative as the last. Her architectural style has always been very hard to describe accurately. She was not tied down by one, but instead took inspiration from many different styles. Even though her style is hard to define, it is immediately clear when a design is hers. Her impact on the world of architecture was great, but how great was it truly? And how did the world move on after her death in 2016?

Her life

Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq and her inspiration and love for architecture was sparked when she visited the Sumerian cities, in southern Iraq. There, she saw the site of one of the world’s oldest civilizations and was inspired by how everything naturally flowed together, as she described it. She started studying mathematics in Beirut, Lebanon, after she finished school. She later described these years as the happiest years of her life. Only after

ZAHA HADID

Chepos is the independent architecture magazine of study association Cheops of the Technical University Eindhoven. For every edition, Chepos and pantheon// publish one of each other’s articles.

the rise of dictator Saddam Hussein did her family leave Iraq, and she moved to London. There, she enrolled in the Architectural Association School of Architecture, where it became clear very early on that architectural design came naturally to her. One of her teachers was famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who she said ‘ignited her ambitions’ and ‘taught her to trust her strangest intuitions’. After she had earned her degree she started working at his office, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, which was every bit as ambitious as she was. After working there for several years, she started her own London-based firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, together with her partner, Patrik Schumacher. Her unrealized plans and drawings drew much attention from the architectural community. She was praised for having new ideas and became a leader in theoretical design. Notebooks filled with ideas were published in magazines, but her designs remained unrealized. Only after a couple years, her first project was realized, the Vitra Fire Station, and it gained her international acclaim. For years she worked on ambitious projects, which ultimately got her the Pritzker Prize. She was the first and thus far only woman to ever earn the prize that is often described as architecture’s Nobel prize. Zaha Hadid was an innovator and helped shape the architectural world into what it is today. When she died, she left behind unfinished projects and a mark on the architectural world.

Inspiration and works

A large part of her inspiration came from Russian avant-garde art. Tatlin, Lissitzky and especially Malevich, after whom she named her graduation project, influenced her work greatly. A result of her interest in Malevich in particular, led her to adopt a design tool that helped her create her greatest design: painting. Painting helped her see different perspectives as she was developing her designs. Malevich’s paintings gave her new ideas about how space could be distorted in such a way that it did not lose continuity. Using these paintings led to the idea of layering drawings over each other in order to create interesting shapes and views, that could later be literally translated into building designs. These paintings were a large part o f her time at

Zaha Hadid was an innovator and helped shape the architectural world into what it is today.

architecture school, but also served as a large influence for her designs in her professional career. Her first major project, was the Vitra Fire Station. This is a fire station located on a corporate campus located in Germany. The composition of elements in the project is unconventional, with jagged edges and geometric forms that are not often seen. Fellow architects praised the project, while the firefighters who actually had to use the building were very critical and eventually moved out. This project marked the start of her reputation as an architect