zaha
When the architect Dame Zaha Hadid died, I was only vaguely aware of her name and her work. But when my phone buzzed with the New York Times news alert of her untimely death at 65, it prompted an obsessive and deep dive into her life, her trajectory, and the work of a lioness of modern design.
As a young architect in the 1970's, Zaha was influenced by the avant garde painter Kazimir Malevich, whose Suprematist vision challenged convention and perception and which she brilliantly translated to her own design practice. Throughout her career. she relentlessly explored ideas of geometric fragmentation, chaos, and layering. Her early designs were bold abstract constructions of intersecting rectangles stacked on top of one another but not quite lining up.
As her design philosophy evolved her design aesthetic became more fluid and organic reflecting what I imagine to be imagery from her youth - sand dunes, water, and the beautiful curves of arabic, her first language.
Zaha Hadid was fearless. She pushed boundaries of all kinds - or maybe she just didn't see them. She never wanted to be thought of as just a "female" architect, but she came to understand that she was an important figure to other women in the field who were inspired by her success in a male-dominated field. An Iraqui-born Arab educated abroad and living in London she often felt she was an outsider. She graduated from the Architectural Academy and yet she was a citizen of the world whose vision both transcended and celebrated her culture of origin. And of course she was a ground-breaking architect. Above all Zaha Hadid was an artist of singular vision who was true to her aesthetic and managed to build some of the most exquisite creations on this planet. Daring. Genius. Dreamer. Her work is breathtaking...
and a vivid reminder that anything is possible.
