Zaha

Interview with Alvin Boyarsky - Part II

ZH: The question was how to free the plan in a different way than had been done in the past, how to free it to allow certain elements to operate independently. These parts are able to impose themselves more assertively on the urban condition. What may seem to be frivolous graphics has a special logic of its own. It may not be rational in the European sense, but it is logical in the way it moves people, in the way the building is used. It also has to do with release and compression between the different zones of the plan.

Energy is compressed into linear conditions, or it is released in an urban sense, and causes certain forms to flow – in this case, the flow of the people. It was through observing how Mies did certain things to liberate the plan - how he energized the ground condition, for example - that my work on the Irish Prime Minister’s Residence (Dublin, 1979–80) developed. Afterward people said the design was Kandinsky-like. Then the connection with Arab calligraphy struck me. They all have the same roots: 1950s architecture was related to Kandinsky’s work and Kandinsky’s work to Arab calligraphy.

It’s my belief that early-twentieth-century abstract painters often turned to primitive, figurative art - generally African - or to Chinese and Arabic calligraphy and geometric design. These were the only abstract forms of art available at the time. There are various ways of doing a plan. There are urban conditions and there are points of release. The plan interprets the architectural program - and it can manifest this free-flowing nonlinear form. It’s similar to the study of engineering.

Most engineers study structure in a linear way and can’t deal with it when it’s nonlinear. Peter Rice and I had a conversation the other day about an engineer’s understanding of the nonlinear condition of architecture. What is very nice about Peter is that he understands it - that’s really quite exciting.