ZAHA HADID

"The queen of curves in architecture"

BY : MOHAMMED
ASSOCIATES
 INTRODUCTION
BORN ON OCTOBER 31ST 1950, IN BAGHDAD ,IRAQ
Studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) in
1968.
In 1972 she moved to London (UK), to join the Association of
Architecture where she graduated honors in 1977 and served as a
teacher soon aiter.
After her first building was commissioned and built in 1994, the Vitra
Fire Station in Germany, her career took a leap forward.
In 2004, she was bestowed with Pritzker prize and the stirling prize in
2010 and 2011.
Her style is deconstructivism, that encourages radical freedom of form
and the open manifestation of complexity in a building rather than strict
attention to functional concerns and conventional design elements (as
right angles or grids).
Using light volumes, sharp, angular forms, the play of light and the
integration of the buildings with the landscape.
CONCEPTS

FRAGMENTATION

DYNAMISM

REVOLUTIONARY

ABSTRACTION
NOTABLE WORKS
Vitra Fire Station 1993
LFOne/ Landesgartenschau 1999
Bergisel Ski Jump 2002
Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art 2003
BMW Plant Central Building 2004
Hotel Puerta America [interior] 2005 HEYDER ALIYEV CENTRE
Ordrupgaard Museum Extension 2005
Phaeno Science Center 2005
Museum of Art, XXI (MAXXI), 2010
Guangzhou opera house (2010),
London aquatics centre,2011
Kushnat villa,2013
Heyder aliyev centre ,2012

LONDON AQUATIC CENTRE

 VITRA FIRE STATION
Completed in 1993, the Vitra fire
station was Hadid's first realized
project of her career.
It is Hadid's showcased work that
delves into the deconstructivist
theoretical language that she
developed through her paintings as a
conceptual mediator of finding spatial
relationships and form.
It was built within the factory complex
in order to protect all Vitra buildings
after fire demonstrated the need for
one
 CONCEPT
They started the project with an
intention to deploy elements of the
project so that would not be lost among
the huge sheds of the Ships that make
up the factory. They also used these
elements to structure the entire site,
giving identity and rhythm to the main
Street that runs through the complex.
lt was conceived as a longitudinal
garden, as if it were the artificial
extension of the linear patterns of the
adjacent farmland
 DESIGN
The entire building is freezing motion. This
expresses the tension of being on the alert, and
the potential to explode into action at any time.
The walls seem to glide past each other, while
large sliding doors are literally a moving wall.
The partition is minimized, articulating the
soaces with three longitudinal stainless steel
cabinets that separate the transparent area of
the service area. The second floor is rotated
with respect to the bottom and it is accessed by
an independent Stepladder. It has a club
composed of a staff training room and
conference room.
The design unifies two very different parts of the program: the housing of fire
trucks and the provision of various facilities for the firefighters.
The concept of the stacked walls encompasses both parts, whereby a break or
bend in the line of the building expresses the intersection of the two. The entrance
to the building is precisely at this junction.
The fire station is a composition of concrete planes that bend, tilt, and break
according to the conceptual dynamic forces that are connecting landscape and
architecture.
Concrete “shards” and planes slide past one another creating a narrow, horizontal
profile. The sense of instability is intensified as horizontal planes slip over one
another, while another projects out over the garage bay. Always in a state of
constant uneasiness, the concrete planes embody opaque quality that restricts
views into the building except for when the walls begin to split from the building.
 MATERIALS
The whole building is constructed with
reinforced concrete in situ in the light,
avoiding any added that distort the simplicity
of its prismatic form and the abstract quality
of the architectural concept, paying
particular attention to the sharpness of the
edges.
The lack of detail was also applied on the
inside, rough opening frames, polished
aluminum sliding planes that close the garage
area, guard rails or lighting design,
maintaining a consistent language that gives
meaning to the whole.