Community Chat

[sidsmom]

I know we have many World travelers on the boards.

Have you personally seen her designs?

I'll post some after this original post.

Her designs are so fluid & feminine.

I learned of her work during the London Olympics....the swimming center was her design. The building seemed to 'move' with the soft curves. Simply beautiful.

Another young, creative life taken away from us way too early.

(CNN) Award-winning architect Zaha Hadid, whose designs included the London Aquatic Centre, died Thursday at the age of 65, a representative said.

A statement from her firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, confirmed that Hadid was being treated for bronchitis at a hospital in Miami and died of a heart attack in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Born in Baghdad in 1950, Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before joining the Architectural Association in London in 1972. She went on to establish her own practice in London in 1979.

Fellow architect Daniel Libeskind said in reaction to the news: "She was a good friend. It's devastating news. I'm so, so sad. It's as if a star has gone out in the firmament of architecture. It's a sad loss that I think is irreplaceable because she was a unique architect.

"I think she was really a pioneer because as we all know it's very difficult for women to succeed in a male dominated field and she was an example and an inspiration to many women in architecture. I think she had a very important role in engendering a sense that equality is coming and must come."

In 2004, 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 design of the MAXXI Museum in Rome and in 2011 for the Evelyn Grace Academy in London. In 2016 she was awarded RIBA's Gold Medal for her work.

Speaking today RIBA President Jane Duncan said: "This is absolutely terrible news. Dame Zaha Hadid was an inspirational woman, and the kind of architect one can only dream of being. Visionary and highly experimental, her legacy despite her young age, is formidable. She leaves behind a body of work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, that delight and astound people all around the world.

"It was only last month that I had the enviable task of awarding Zaha the 2016 Royal Gold Medal for architecture -- she was delighted to receive the recognition and adds the medal to an amazing collection of awards, not least winning the RIBA Stirling Prize two years running. The world of architecture has lost a star today."

Hadid 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's first major built commission was the Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany (1993). She went on to design other notable projects i subsequent notable projects including the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku (2013) and Galaxy Soho in Beijing (2012).

Architect Frank Gehry said on Thursday: "She was a great architect and a great friend. I will miss her."

[sidsmom]

[Ladybug724]

How beautiful her designs are!  It looks like she was influenced by M.C. Escher a little bit

[jlkz]

@Ladybug724

Thank you for posting this info and the photos.  WOW !!! Is all I can say:  her designs are breathtaking and set the bar very high for all who come after her.

May she rest in peace.  (. Scary thought, DH and I are still trying to get over this horrible bronchitis strain going around.  I picked mine up in FL mid-March right before coming home. )

[sam96]

Stunning architecture, clearly a brilliant mind.  May she RIP.

[Noel7]

Serbia

[Campion]

Thanks for posting this. She was very prominent in Europe. We lived in Southern Germany, and there were a number of her buildings near the border between Switzerland and Germany.  They really stood out. Unlike the brutish Bauhaus buildings or the surreal Gaudi structures, her buildings seemed to live a life of their own and almost fly out of the ground. She was amazing. Very sorry she died so suddenly and so young (not much older than me!)

A big loss. She was shut out of the Tokyo Olympics by some maneuvering --so there will never be one of her Olympic structures again. Many people here don't know her work but I think she was the finest architect of our times---and a woman, too. It's a male-dominated field. 

[sam96]

@Noel7 That is a stunning building.  And men think they are smarter than women...😳

[kivah]

I never heard of her --- but such beautiful, impressive structures. The world lost a talented, productive person.

[shoekitty]

@sidsmom

thank for the thread!!!  She was a genius.  One thing about architects.  The great ones live forever as a building.  Her designs were beyond creative and brillient.  What an addition to the asthetics of living