@zaha_hadid

Zaha Hadid

I am an architect, artist and designer. I use painting as a design tool and abstraction as a method to reopen the untested experiments of Modernism and find new fields of building.

Proof · case studies

Cases

The situation, the work, the outcome. Ranked by how much the work proves.

I was the first woman to design a US art museum

1997 — 2003

Situation

A competitive commission at the end of the 1990s, alongside two other museum wins and a large industrial building, built 1997–2003.

Action

I won the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati against Rem Koolhaas and other leading architects, and became the first woman to design an art museum in the United States. I used form to create interior drama in an 8,500 m² building.

Outcome

Architectural design can stage drama inside a modest volume — art and culture need tension, not just square metres.

architecturemuseumsdesign

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How I lift a building to give the ground back

2000 — 2005

At the Phaeno Science Center and BMW's Leipzig building I raised the volume on leaning concrete pylons and filled the ground beneath with life — a design method I repeated across my work.

architecturedesignmethods

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I roofed the London Olympic pools on three supports

2005 — 2011

Situation

An Olympic venue built 2005–2011 under public scrutiny of budget and schedule.

Action

For the 2012 Olympics I designed the London Aquatics Centre, inspired by "the fluid geometry of water in movement": three pools and 17,500 seats under a parabolic roof resting on just three supports.

Outcome

Bold structural design costs money and time; the payoff is a space critics call majestic.

architecturestructural designsports venues

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I built the Heydar Aliyev Center without a straight line

2007 — 2013

Situation

A major cultural commission in Azerbaijan, named for the former ruler Heydar Aliyev; the award drew criticism over the client.

Action

In Baku (2007–2013) I designed a cultural and conference centre — three auditoriums, a library and museum, 74 metres high — whose fluid form rises from the folds of the landscape. It won Design of the Year in 2014.

Outcome

I can carry a total design idea — no straight lines at all — through a large cultural building to completion.

architecturedesignculture

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I finished the Bergisel Ski Jump inside one year

1999 — 2002

Situation

Following a Berlin housing estate and the Guggenheim exhibition "The Great Utopia", this was my next major project (1999–2002).

Action

In Innsbruck I replaced a 1926 Olympic ski jump with a 48-metre "organic hybrid" of bridge and tower, with a 150-seat panoramic cafe — and had one year to complete it before the next competition.

Outcome

A sculptural design idea can survive a hard deadline and traditionalist opposition when the form is clear.

architecturedesigndeadlines

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MAXXI in Rome, my Stirling Prize museum of motion

1998 — 2010

Situation

A national museum in Rome; I took the overall form from the surrounding orthogonal site grids and built it over twelve years.

Action

Between 1998 and 2010 I designed and built MAXXI, Rome's National Museum of Arts of the 21st Century, as a building where everything seems to move and flow. It won the Stirling Prize in 2010.

Outcome

A museum for contemporary art and culture can itself be a work of frozen motion, not a neutral box.

architecturemuseumsdesign

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I turned a small fire station into my launch pad

1991 — 1993

Situation

Vitra president Rolf Fehlbaum, who had earlier invited Frank Gehry to build a design museum at the same factory, asked me to design a fire station there.

Action

For Vitra's factory in Weil am Rhein I designed a small fire station in raw concrete and glass — sharp diagonal forms colliding in the centre. It became my first built work and the start of my architectural career.

Outcome

A modest commission, designed as a piece of sculptural art, can carry a whole design language into the world.

architecturedesignconcrete

Open card

Proof · case studies

Cases

The situation, the work, the outcome. Ranked by how much the work proves.

I was the first woman to design a US art museum

1997 — 2003

Situation

A competitive commission at the end of the 1990s, alongside two other museum wins and a large industrial building, built 1997–2003.

Action

Outcome

Architectural design can stage drama inside a modest volume — art and culture need tension, not just square metres.

architecturemuseumsdesign

Open card

How I lift a building to give the ground back

2000 — 2005

At the Phaeno Science Center and BMW's Leipzig building I raised the volume on leaning concrete pylons and filled the ground beneath with life — a design method I repeated across my work.

architecturedesignmethods

Open card

I roofed the London Olympic pools on three supports

2005 — 2011

Situation

An Olympic venue built 2005–2011 under public scrutiny of budget and schedule.

Action

For the 2012 Olympics I designed the London Aquatics Centre, inspired by "the fluid geometry of water in movement": three pools and 17,500 seats under a parabolic roof resting on just three supports.

Outcome

Bold structural design costs money and time; the payoff is a space critics call majestic.

architecturestructural designsports venues

Open card

I built the Heydar Aliyev Center without a straight line

2007 — 2013

Situation

A major cultural commission in Azerbaijan, named for the former ruler Heydar Aliyev; the award drew criticism over the client.

Action

Outcome

I can carry a total design idea — no straight lines at all — through a large cultural building to completion.

architecturedesignculture

Open card

I finished the Bergisel Ski Jump inside one year

1999 — 2002

Situation

Following a Berlin housing estate and the Guggenheim exhibition "The Great Utopia", this was my next major project (1999–2002).

Action

In Innsbruck I replaced a 1926 Olympic ski jump with a 48-metre "organic hybrid" of bridge and tower, with a 150-seat panoramic cafe — and had one year to complete it before the next competition.

Outcome

A sculptural design idea can survive a hard deadline and traditionalist opposition when the form is clear.

architecturedesigndeadlines

Open card

MAXXI in Rome, my Stirling Prize museum of motion

1998 — 2010

Situation

A national museum in Rome; I took the overall form from the surrounding orthogonal site grids and built it over twelve years.

Action

Between 1998 and 2010 I designed and built MAXXI, Rome's National Museum of Arts of the 21st Century, as a building where everything seems to move and flow. It won the Stirling Prize in 2010.

Outcome

A museum for contemporary art and culture can itself be a work of frozen motion, not a neutral box.

architecturemuseumsdesign

Open card

I turned a small fire station into my launch pad

1991 — 1993

Situation

Vitra president Rolf Fehlbaum, who had earlier invited Frank Gehry to build a design museum at the same factory, asked me to design a fire station there.

Action

Outcome

A modest commission, designed as a piece of sculptural art, can carry a whole design language into the world.

architecturedesignconcrete

Open card