Accepting the Pritzker Architecture prize in 2004, Zaha Hadid, the first woman to have accomplished the feat stated,” The spirit of adventure to embrace the new and the incredible belief in the power of invention attracted me to the Russian Avant-garde.” These words of Zaha ring louder today as The State Hermitage Museum in Russia plays host to what is heralded as the first retrospective exhibition of her work. Assuming more importance in the context of her exploration of the Russian Avant-garde, which in some ways reflect in her work even today.

Dame Zaha Mohammed Hadid stands out in the world of architecture for what she is, the only Arab-woman architect in a largely male dominated world as much for as she does for the sheer character of her work. Her mentort Rem Koolhas once famously said that Zaha is a planet in her own inimitable orbit.’

Educated at the Architectural Association School in London, Zaha shot into fame when she won the commission for the Peak Club. Her designs have always been about testing the boundaries, a determination to get her way, and an indifference to practical constraints. For a long time, her structures were considered unbuildable, including Peak Club which still remains unrealised. Zaha was confined to teaching architecture at various universities. A fire station near German- Swiss border for the furniture company Vitra was her first completed project and it has stayed there for a quarter of a century now. The unbuildable tag is something of the past now. Zaha’s has built structures on both side of the horizon and is as popular in places like China or the MiddleEast as she in Europe. She’s is currently busy with two mega stadiums: the Olympic stadiums in Japan, the FIFA world cup stadium at Qatar. Over the last decade as the world went on frenzy for buildings that stood out, Zaha churned out iconic structures one after the other: the MAXII museum at Rome, the colossal Heydar Aliyev cultural centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Evelyn Grace Academy at Brixton. The exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum outlines the pioneering research that permeates the architect’s career and celebrates a form of architecture that she can lay entire claim to. As the exhibition explores the architect’s forty-year career, we see that, far beyond simply continuing the unfinished project of Modernism and the unfettered spirit of the Avant-garde, Hadid has transcended these ideas, creating an entirely new spatial paradigm; an architecture of the future.

The exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum outlines the pioneering research that permeates the architect’s career and celebrates a form of architecture that she can lay entire claim to. As the exhibition explores the architect’s forty-year career, we see that, far beyond simply continuing the unfinished project of Modernism and the unfettered spirit of the Avant-garde, Hadid has transcended these ideas, creating an entirely new spatial paradigm; an architecture of the future.

Words: FWD MEDIA     Photos: Zaha Hadid Architects

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