Zaha Hadid, the world’s first lady of architecture
She was born on October 31, 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq.
Mrs. Zaha Muhammed Hussain Hadid Al-Lhaibi is an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer.
It is considered a landmark of architecture in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century.
Known for her radical, deconstructive designs, Hadid died on March 31, 2016 in Miami, Florida.
- Beginning of working life
Zaha Hadid studied mathematics at Berchmsted School for Boys, the American University of
Beirut, from which she received her BA.
She moved to London in 1972 to study architecture at the Architectural Association,
which was considered a major center of progressive architectural thought during the 1970s.
Hadid founded her own company in London, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), in 1979.
She received the Medal of Appreciation from the British Queen,
after she was distinguished by a group of exotic designs around the world,
And she has many designs in Europe, Asia and America,
where Hadid conquered the world with her distinctive designs.
In 1987 Hadid worked as a teaching assistant at the College of Architecture in London,
and then organized as a visiting professor at several international universities.
Hadid chose Al-Baghdadi’s “Kahramana” monument as a media symbol for Baghdad,
as it symbolizes the golden age of Rashid and Baghdad and the stories of the Thousand and
One Nights.
- Zaha Hadid Architectural Designs
Hadid’s designs were distinguished by the free lines that are not defined by horizontal or
vertical lines,
and besides her commitment to deconstruction, her designs were not devoid of durability.
was known in her early days as the “paper engineer”,
because her architectural designs could not go beyond the stage of actually drawing and construction.
Her designs were then exhibited in the form of exquisitely detailed colour plates, as works of art in major museums.
- Architectural Designs by Zaha Hadid
The first paper iron architectural design came to the construction stage in 1993, a fire station in Germany.
This station contributed to Hadid’s global fame, although the design was heavily criticized.
Due to the absence of windows in the design of the station,
it is described as ugly but reflects Hadid’s style of using polygon and triangular structures.
However, the building was described in the architectural milieu as an expression of a construction that resembles
ready-made fire stations that can explode at any moment.
then she won a competition to design the new building for the Rosenthal Museum of Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1997.
This building was designed in a deconstructive manner,
which was not known at the time, and was also met with several criticisms.
Completed in 2003 after it was approved,
the building was the first American museum designed by a woman.
Then Zaha Hadid’s architectural designs spread on a global scale,
designing the Italian Art Museum in Rome in 2009.
Hadid designed the architecture for the London Marine Sports Centre,
which was designated for the 2012 Olympic Games.
As for the projects that brought Hadid to the global arena, they were the Abu Dhabi Bridge,
the subway station in Strasbourg, and the cultural center in Azerbaijan.
As well as the science center in Wallsburg, the steamboat station in Salrino,
and the ski center in Innsbruck.
In 2013, Zaha Hadid designed the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center in Baku.
- Architectural Awards Received by Zaha Hadid
– Zaha Hadid is the first female architect to be awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in 2004,
which is equivalent to the Nobel Prize in Engineering.
– She has also won many prestigious awards,
– medals and honorary titles in the arts of architecture.
– She has been awarded the Sterling Prize on two occasions.
– She was awarded the Order of the British Empire and the Japanese Imperial Medal in 2012.
– Zaha was the first female architect to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal within the RIBA
– Engineering Arts Award in 2016.
She Described as the world’s most powerful female engineer,
Hadid believed that the field of architecture was not just for men.
It has achieved Arab and international achievements,
and reputable international names have been keen to cooperate with it.
Not only architectural designs, but also designs in furniture, jewelry, shoes,
As well as bags, and indoor spaces such as restaurants, and theater groups.
Hadid has been dubbed “Lady Gaga” in the world of engineering by her critics,
and was chosen as the fourth most powerful woman in the world in 2010.
- The end of Zaha Hadid’s career
In 2016, Zaha Hadid suffered a heart attack and died in a Miami hospital in the United States.
