Zaha Hadid - Architecture Without Limits - Part 1
How do you become one of the most exciting architects in the world before you’ve even built a building?
In the first of two episodes, Jonathan Foyle and Edwin Heathcote explore the extraordinary story of Zaha Hadid; the visionary who would shatter expectations and transform contemporary architecture.
From a cosmopolitan childhood in Baghdad to the radical world of London’s Architectural Association, they uncover the people, art and ideas that shaped her extraordinary imagination. Inspired by Russian Suprematism and Constructivism, Hadid created explosive drawings and paintings of buildings that seemed to float, fragment and defy gravity.
By the 1980s, her audacious designs were winning competitions and attracting international attention, even if they remained stubbornly unbuilt. Brilliant, uncompromising and decades ahead of her time, Zaha Hadid was already changing architecture. The buildings were still to come.
Images used in this Episode:
Zaha in her family living room Iraq, 1950, Public Domain Walter Gropius and the office tower of the University of Baghdad, 1967. Frank Lloyd Wright, 1954, Public Domain Walter Gropius, 1954, Public Domain Gio Ponti, 1950s, Public Domain Perelli Tower, ca. 1949, public domain Martyr’s Square, Beirut, 1970, public domain American University of Beirut, 1970, public domain Architectural Association, London, Creative Commons 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:T01-Architectural-Association.jpg James Wines, Best, 1975, Kaaba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Creative Commons 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaaba_%281%29_Makkah_%28Mecca%29.jpg Tatlin’s Tower, 1919, public domain, Creative Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tatlin%27s_Tower_maket_1919_year.jpg Kurt Schwitter Merzbau, Hannover, 1933, public domain The Walking City, Ron Herron, 1964 Centre Georges Pompidou, competition entry, 1971, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini Rem Koolhaas, 1987, by Rob Bogaerts, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rem_Koolhaas,_de_architect_wiens_ontwerp_voor_Haags_stadhuis_gekozen_is,_Bestanddeelnr_933-8710.jpg Alvin Boyarsky, 1978 Alexander Calder, Stabile-Mobile – Brazilia, c.1965 by art_inthecity via Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) Conical Intersect, Gordon Matta-Clark, 1975 Bernard Tschumi, 1983 Casimir Malevich, 1925 c. Public Domain, Creative Commons Rotterdam Cube Houses, CC BY-SA 4.0: Renate Hano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Blom#/media/File:Kubush%C3%A4user.jpg Architecton Zeta Malevich, 1926, CC 1.0 public domain HSBC Main Building, CC BY-SA 3.0: WiNG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HK_HSBC_Main_Building_2008.jpg Philip Johnson, Public Domain, c.1963 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Johnson.jpg High West and Victoria Peak from Victoria Gap, Hong Kong (CC BY 3.0: Daniel Case) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:High_West_and_Victoria_Peak_from_Victoria_Gap_(crop1).jpg
Heni Publishing Images:
Zaha Hadid (with art by Iran do Espirito Santo), during the inauguration of MAXXI, The National Museum of the Arts of 21st Century Arts, Rome, 27 May 2010
Zaha Hadid at The Sparkling Metropolis, 1978, Solomon R, Guggenheim Museum, New York, an exhibition organized by Rem Koolhaas and his colleagues Madelon Vriesendorp, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Zaha Hadid
The World (89 Degrees) Zaha Hadid Architects, London, United Kingdom, 1983
Composite plan, Irish Prime Minister’s Residence, Zaha Hadid Architects, Dublin, Ireland, 1980, Ink and acrylic on mylar
The Great Utopia, Tatlin tower and tectonic Worldwind, Soloman R Guggenheim Museum, Zaha Hadid Architects, New York, USA 1992, Acrylic and watercolor on cartridge
Malevich’s Tektonik, Zaha Hadid, , London, United Kingdom, 1976, Acrylic on card
Zaha Hadid at The Sparkling Metropolis, 1978, Solomon R, Guggenheim Museum, New York, an exhibition organized by Rem Koolhaas and his colleagues Madelon Vriesendorp, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman at the opening of the exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, MoMA, New York, 21 June 1988
The Peak, Overall isometric, Day view
Zaha cutting The Peak Leisure Centre cake at the opening of the exhibition Planetary Architecture Two, at the Architecture Association, London, 1983
Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman at the opening of the exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, MoMA, New York, 21 June 1988
Dame Zaha Hadid, 1991
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Katherine Alcock is an art historian and one of London’s celebrated Blue Badge Tourist Guides. With academic training in History and History of Art, Katherine has spent over 13 years teaching, touring and talking on the subject of architecture and Britain’s extraordinary buildings. Her ability to bring past worlds to life through vivid storytelling has seen her appear on several radio and television programmes, speaking on a wide variety of subjects, from tourism and travel to the history of toilets. She is a tutor and lecturer for the Institute of Tourist Guiding, and a former Chair of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers' Association.
Dr Jonathan Foyle is best known for presenting BBC series including the Broadcast Award-winning Climbing Great Buildings. He is author of seven books on English architecture, and wrote extensively on craft and domestic buildings for the Financial Times. With an academic training in Architecture, History of Art and a PhD in Archaeology, he was a Curator of Historic Buildings at Hampton Court Palace, and formerly led the UK office of World Monuments Fund through a series of major fundraising and conservation programmes. He presently lectures on Architectural History and Conservation in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath.
Edwin Heathcote is the Architecture and Design Critic of The Financial Times. He is a former architect and designer and the author of around a dozen books. He is the founder of Reading Design and the Keeper of Meaning at The Cosmic House. His most recent book is On the Street: In Between Architecture, HENI Books.
