Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBEwas an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first Arab woman who received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, winning it in 2004. She received the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2015 she became the first woman to be awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in her own right...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth31 October 1950
CityBaghdad, Iraq
funny-inspirational believe sacrifice
You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.
sticks degrees architecture
There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?
jewels cities trying
I'm trying to discover - invent, I suppose - an architecture, and forms of urban planning, that do something of the same thing in a contemporary way. I started out trying to create buildings that would sparkle like isolated jewels; now I want them to connect, to form a new kind of landscape, to flow together with contemporary cities and the lives of their peoples.
nice design quality
As a woman, I'm expected to want everything to be nice and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don't design nice buildings - I don't like them. I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthy quality.
eccentric
I am eccentric, I admit it, but I am not a nutcase.
museums furniture pedestal
I don't particularly like showing furniture on pedestals, but for whatever reasons you always have to in museums.
depression depressing decision
It was such a depressing time. I didn't look very depressed, maybe, but it was really dire. I made a conscious decision not to stop, but it could have gone the other way.
architecture tough difficult
Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.
icons people design
People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that's ok.
nice thinking cities
It's very important for cities all around the world to reinvent themselves, and Glasgow is a good example of that. The Scots are very nice. I don't think they are burdened by their history.
sensitive conscious knows
I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.
britain-and-america quality building
What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.
museums london gallery
There are so many great galleries and museums in London, but they can be very crowded during the day.
london exciting
I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.