Zaha Hadid

How they reason

Thinking

In the beginning, there was the diagonal

Aphorism

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As a woman in architecture you're always an outsider

Aphorism

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Principle

I keep drawing by hand so the computer cannot limit me

Even as technology entered design, I kept hand-drawing my buildings and making models, so my designs were never limited to what the computer could do. My paintings exploded site and programme to find the form.

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Reflection

I taught architecture at Harvard, Yale and in Vienna

Teaching was the base of my early reputation and stayed with me: the Sullivan Chair in Chicago, visiting chairs at Harvard and Yale, and my own masterclass in Vienna from 2000.

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Reflection

From mathematics in Beirut to the AA in London

I studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to London in 1972 to study at the Architectural Association, where I learned to think in diagonals.

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Insight timeline

How the thinking unfolded over time.

How they reason

Thinking

In the beginning, there was the diagonal

Aphorism

Open card

As a woman in architecture you're always an outsider

Aphorism

Open card

Principle

I keep drawing by hand so the computer cannot limit me

Open card

Reflection

I taught architecture at Harvard, Yale and in Vienna

Teaching was the base of my early reputation and stayed with me: the Sullivan Chair in Chicago, visiting chairs at Harvard and Yale, and my own masterclass in Vienna from 2000.

Open card

Reflection

From mathematics in Beirut to the AA in London

I studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to London in 1972 to study at the Architectural Association, where I learned to think in diagonals.

Open card

Go deeper

Insight timeline

How the thinking unfolded over time.