Zaha

Building Things the World Has Never Seen Before - Part IV

THE FIRST WOMAN TO WIN PRITZKER PRIZE

Zaha Hadid is currently at the zenith of her success. Her construction projects have reached the dimension of master plans for entire urban residential and industrial complexes. Examples include “One North” in Singapore (currently under construction), “Zorrozaurre” in Bilbao, “Olebeaga” in Spain, “Soho City” in Beijing, or her most recent competition winner, the Kartal Masterplan in Istanbul. 

The press package lists thirty prizes and awards, including the so-called “Nobel Prize for Architecture”, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which she became the first woman to win in 2004. She also lectures in London, Harvard, at Columbia University, and is currently a professor in Vienna and Yale. In 2006, the Guggenheim New York held an extensive retrospective of her work. Meanwhile her objects, models, and drawings are selling like hot cakes on the art market.

The Hadid video ends with a view of her “ideal house” for the Cologne Furniture Fair, where the architecture is appearing as a designer. After all, “for me, architecture and design are one and the same”. 

When her colleague Naoto Fukasawa links up to the press conference by video from Japan, he gives his view of the star architect’s daring visions with typical Asian politeness. By that time, Zaha Hadid has already left the building. Things to do, people to see…