Zaha Hadid
Contemporary Arts Center
Originally uploaded by dynamist.
She’s the London-based Iraqi architect who designed Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center, described by the New York Times as “the most important American building to be completed since the end of the Cold War”. Sunday’s Observer Woman has a curious interview with Hadid by Lynn Barber.
Barber’s profiles are always enjoyable, but this one left me wishing she’d done a little reporting in addition to interviewing. We’re left wondering why Hadid is not in demand in Britain, why her designs - when commissioned - are scrapped there, why she is such an outcast in her adopted homeland. Perhaps Barber should have asked someone besides Hadid herself (who also seems to have little clue - or at least none she’s going to share with us), or come up with something a bit more original than “It’s because she’s a foreigner and a woman”. I mean, that could well be the case, but some actual investigation would have made for a more interesting piece.
The psychology of architecture is a hugely fascinating topic, and one for which Barber probably would not have had much space if she had explored it. Her description of Hadid’s home was just begging for some informed analysis, though. And then there’s this line:
She wears mainly Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake and never throws anything away.
So where does she put it all in that super-sterile flat that’s all hard edges, straight lines and clean surfaces? At the very least, I want to know about her storage or…anything. There are too many questions left after this profile. I’ll wait eagerly for her memoirs.
Filed under: Life
I am coming to dislike that word “important”, used that way, more and more. What a world of foolishness it evokes.
Well, there was an interview with her in the January British Vogue, and it said she has a spare bedroom stuffed with boxes and a clothes rail, and that the TV equipment is all in a cupboard. I thought Lynn Barber was being a bit sloppy in this one, and was trying to be funny about the flat (maybe?)
Lynn Barber is always trying to be funny…but not in an annoying way. This one just irritated me as it left me dying to know so much on obvious topics she didn’t bother to do any actual reporting on.
Yeah, I see what you mean.
My favourite LB interview was with Tracey Emin years ago, where she finds used condoms lying around on the sofa (and doesn’t run away screaming). Great example of the contents of the room being more interesting than the interview.
Zaha’s thin built portfolio has almost nothing to do with her being female or Iraqi. It is a direct result of her being notoriously difficult to work with and the fact that she is much more of an “Artist” or “Designer” rather than an “Architect”.
While I have both first and second hand knowledge of working on her US domestic projects, most of her clients’ complaints revolve around her obstinance over budget, inflexibility and poor quality of “construction-oriented” drawings that leave her office.
Certainly her architectural designs are beautiful and their final construction a monument to both minimalism and abstract deconstrcution, she owes their success to those local Architects who worked very hard to turn her napkin sketches into actual buildings.
I’m afraid that her general arrogance and itchy trigger finger to call “gender bias” in public has done more to injure the potential of two generations of female Architects than it has to encourage and aid them, which is extremely unfortunate.
Btw, the central stair in Cinci’s CAC is quite possibly one of my favorite details in modern architecture. Immense, powerful and beautiful. You can thank a few special folks at KZF Architects, Cincinnati for that!
HA! I remember doing a project on Hadid and having to read up on her BS. My BF and I did the project together — he was an architecture major, and I was an urban planning major — and our differing philosophies, which eventually led to the break up, began with this project.
After learning more and starting the path that he’s following, he, like Hadid, saw himself as this artist. He has a vision to impart upon the world. Which, btw, like matthew says above, is exactly the point. She is an amazing designer. She has a beautiful vision. But, like the artist who chose to “wrap” the islands to create a discussion about space and the definitions therein (I forget, exactly the name), Hadid chooses artistry. Which is why I couldn’t stand the damn project; and why the BF, in the end, had to be thrown out too (last I heard, he’s out in SF somewhere in a “design” architecture firm that works on like three buildings a year… he’s happy, I hear :-))
From a personal standpoint, anything that cannot express itself pragmatically… well, throw it out. Buildings=art? No thanks. Buildings serve a function. When you sacrifice their functionality to make a statement, then you lose the idea of a building. (It’s why, btw, the Vietnam War memorial is so effective… it merges the two… functionally, it is a haunting memorial for every single person who died… artistically, it is beautiful with a lot of meaning and the aqbility for people to reach out and interact with the piece)
Though she does create interesting buildings.