Zaha Hadid Dies Age 65

© Martijn Giebels / AotG
© Martijn Giebels / AotG

 

Statement by Zaha Hadid Architects

ZAHA HADID 1950-2016

It is with great sadness that Zaha Hadid Architects have confirmed that Dame Zaha Hadid, DBE died suddenly in Miami in the early hours of this morning. She had contracted bronchitis earlier this week and suffered a sudden heart attack while being treated in hospital.

Zaha Hadid was widely regarded to be the greatest female architect in the world today. Born in Baghdad in 1950, she studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before starting her architectural journey in 1972 at the Architectural Association in London.

By 1979 she had established her own practice in London – Zaha Hadid Architects – garnering a reputation across the world for her ground-breaking theoretical works including The Peak in Hong Kong (1983), the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin (1986) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994).

Working with office partner Patrik Schumacher, her interest was in the interface between architecture, landscape, and geology; which her practice integrates with the use of innovative technologies often resulting in unexpected and dynamic architectural forms.

Zaha Hadid’s first major built commission, one that affirmed her international recognition, was the Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany (1993); subsequent notable projects including the MAXXI: Italian National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome (2009), the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games (2011) and the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku (2013) illustrate her quest for complex, fluid space. Buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati (2003) and the Guangzhou Opera House in China (2010) have also been hailed as architecture that transforms our ideas of the future with visionary spatial concepts defined by advanced design, material and construction processes.

In 2004, Zaha Hadid became the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She twice won the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, the RIBA Stirling Prize: in 2010 for the MAXXI Museum in Rome, a building for the staging of 21st century art, the distillation of years of experimentation, a mature piece of architecture conveying a calmness that belies the complexities of its form and organisation; and the Evelyn Grace Academy, a unique design, expertly inserted into an extremely tight site, that shows the students, staff and local residents they are valued and celebrates the school’s specialism throughout its fabric, with views of student participation at every turn.

Zaha Hadid’s other awards included the Republic of France’s Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Japan’s Praemium Imperiale and in 2012, Zaha Hadid was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.  She was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture.

She held various academic roles including the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois, School of Architecture. Hadid also taught studios at Columbia University, Yale University and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Zaha Hadid was recently awarded the RIBA’s 2016 Royal Gold Medal, the first woman to be awarded the prestigious honour in her own right.

Copyright © Zaha Hadid Architects

 

Read more about Zaha Hadid and her Olympic designs

Aquatics Centre London 2012

Olympic Stadium Tokyo 2020

Tokyo 2020; Olympic Stadium – Zaha Hadid Architects publishes report and presentation video

Zaha Hadid Architects welcomes a new bidding process for the New National Stadium in order to reduce costs and ensure value for money in terms of quality, durability and long-term sustainability. This video presentation and report outlines in detail the unique design for the New National Stadium which has been thoughtfully developed over two years to be the most compact and efficient stadium for this very special location in Tokyo.

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and our Japanese partners, the New National Stadium contains all the knowledge and expertise gained from the team’s direct experience of other Olympic, World Cup and World Championship stadia. The substantial investment in time, effort and resources already made by the Government and people of Japan into the existing team over the past two years ensures the New National Stadium can be completed in time to welcome the world to Japan in 2019 ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and become a new home for sport for many future generations of Japan’s athletes, sportsmen and women.

 

More information: Zaha Hadid Architects

Tokyo 2020; Japanese government scraps 2020 Olympic stadium design

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, says plans for the 2020 Olympics stadium will be scrapped and a new plan will be developed from scratch. The stadium, designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, drew criticism after the estimated building costs rose to 252bn yen [£1.3bn] last year. [The Guardian]

 

Read more: Japan scraps Zaha Hadid plan for Olympic stadium [The Guardian]

London 2012; Aquatics Centre (Legacy)

Part 4 of 11 in a serie blog posts about the legacy of London 2012. (read more)

© Martijn Giebels / AotG
© Martijn Giebels / AotG
© Martijn Giebels / AotG
© Martijn Giebels / AotG
© Martijn Giebels / AotG
  • Design by; Zaha Hadid Architects
  • Capacity; 17500 seats (2500 post-Olympics)
  • Pools: 50m competition, 50m warm-up, 25m competition diving
  • Two temporary stands (Games-time mode)

London 2012

  • Olympic Games; Diving, Modern Pentathlon (swimming), Swimming, Synchronized Swimming
  • Paralympic Games; Swimming

Post-Olympics

  • Opened to the public from March 2014
  • 2014 FINA/NVC Diving World Series
  • 2016 European Aquatics Championships

Photos

Photos taken on August 23 & 24, 2014. (click to enlarge)

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© Martijn Giebels / AotG
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© Martijn Giebels / AotG
© Martijn Giebels / AotG

Read more

London 2012; Aquatics Centre diagrams and drawings

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects [www.zaha-hadid.com]

 

Concept / Studies

Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects

 

Drawings

Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects
Image Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Image: Zaha Hadid Architects

 

More information:

Tokyo 2020; smaller design released for new national stadium

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The Japan Sport Council has released a basic design proposal for the new National Stadium in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, which will serve as the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The total floor area is about 211,000 square meters, reflecting a reduction of more than 20 percent from the initial design proposal in 2012. The new proposal, released Wednesday, also gives consideration to the protection of the surrounding environment and landscape.

Under the initial proposal, construction was set to cost as much as about ¥300 billion, more than double the original estimate. The project was met with growing criticism for being too large, so parts of the stadium, including aisles, were scaled down and the cost was reduced to about ¥162.5 billion. The new stadium is scheduled to be completed in March 2019.

 

Source: Japan Sport (PDF)