Zara Hadid

I also saw the exhibition of Zaha Hadid, Architecture and design whilst visiting the London Design Museum.



Zaha Hadid is an Iraqi born British citizen based in London. She has lived in London since 1972, when she left Baghdad to study at the Architecture Association. Hadid is the only female architect to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture and is also becoming increasingly involved in furniture-related projects, teaming up with London based electronics engineer Moritz Waldemayer to sculpt a Corian kitchen for the 21st century.

The exhibition is the first full scale show of Zaha Hadid’s work in the UK. It is also one of the largest projects undertaken by the Design Museum, spread over two floors of galleries, and focuses on the recent extraordinarily productive period in Hadid’s work.

Sir Terence Conran talks about the Zara Hadid exhibition in The Design Issue of The Observer Magazine, 'In her work nothing ever seems to be at a right angle. It's intensely sculptural, and completley confounds what architect Jean Pouvre said: 'Never design anything that you don't know how to make' - it seems to me the Zara has done exactly the opposite..I find her full of imagination." ( Interview with Ian Tucker, 'Designers' London.' 2 September 2007.)

Here are a few images from the exhibition:




Zaha’s Vortexx chandelier was designed in 2005 for Italian lighting brand Sawaya & Moroni and represents an “infinite ribbon of light”. The exhibition text says: “The curved lines conjure up a double helix that appears to flow in perpetual motion. The chandelier is made from fibreglass and acrylic, finished in car paint with a recessed LED light source by Zumtobel.”




This model of the forthcoming Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre is probably the most interesting and spectacular models in the show. Architecturally the project - which was announced earlier this year - marks a new direction for Hadid. “As it winds through the site, the architecture increases in complexity, building up height and depth and achieving multiple summits in the bodies housing the performance spaces, which spring from the structure like fruits on a vine and face westward, toward the water,” explains Hadid.