Advanced Student’s Book
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3c Page 39
READING TEXT
The paper architect For a long time, Zaha Hadid was known as ‘the paper architect’, someone whose grand designs never left the page to become real buildings But in recent !ears her buildings have sprouted up like mushrooms mushrooms all over the world" the #uang$hou %pera House in &hina, a car factor! in #erman!, a contemporar! art museum in 'ome, a transport museum in Scotland, and the A(uatics &entre for the )*+) %l!mpics in ondon Hadid is now one of the most sought after architects of our age She is also one of the few women to have made it in a profession still dominated b! men -n Britain, where Hadid lives .she was born in -ra( in +/0*1, less that +02 of practising architects are women A lot more than that enter the profession, but either because of difficult! in getting recognised or because of the deep conservatism surrounding most British architecture, over half of them leave But being ‘a woman in a man’s world’ seems seems to have given Hadid e3tra strength str ength At times she felt she was banging her head against a wall tr!ing to get her designs accepted, but she persevered Famous for her fierce independence, one of her former tutors called her ‘a planet in her own orbit’ 4inning down her individual st!le is difficult &ertainl! she has been influenced b! the modern trend in architecture that likes to pla! with the traditional shape of buildings and fragment them, creating unpredictable angles and surfaces 5orking 5orking in this wa!, she and her fellow architects have produced various rather off the wall spaceship6like structures that seem to def! the normal laws of engineering, but which have intrigued and e3cited the public So the visual impact of her designs from the outside is clearl! important to her, but Hadid maintains that the ke! consideration when she creates an architectural design is people’s well6being -n other words, how the! will feel inside the spaces she creates 7his has drawn her increasingl! to become interested in public pro8ects, such as housing, schools and hospitals 'ecentl! she won the '-BA Stirling 4ri$e for her design of a school comple3 in Bri3ton, south ondon Shaped as a $ig6$ag, the steel and glass structure of 9vel!n #race Academ! takes up onl! +: hectares compared to eight hectares for a t!pical secondar! school 7o compensate for the lack of internal space, Hadid designed a building with lots of natural light and dramatic angles, so that students view the activit! of other students from each different perspective within the structure 7he masterstroke is the
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insertion of a +**m running track right in the middle of the site between buildings to celebrate the school’s emphasis on sports 7his idea of offering the viewer multiple perspectives from within the building is a theme that runs through Hadid’s work Her most famous building, ;A<<- = a museum for the )+st centur! = in 'ome, is a great e3ample -t is a comple3 and spectacular structure of interlocking concrete shapes -nside spaces interconnect ‘like winding streets compressed into one single site in the building’, so that the visitor is surprised and charmed at each turn 7he 'osenthal &enter in &incinatti produces a similar effect ike an e3tension of the street it sits on, it draws !ou in, with walkwa!s directing !ou this wa! and that, and windows inviting !ou to sample the view ‘-t’s about promenading,’ sa!s Hadid, ‘being able to pause, to look out, look above, look sidewa!s’ So what inspires someone like Hadid to produce such radicall! different buildings> She speaks in complimentar! terms about the work of her contemporaries She also cites the natural landscape and organic geological patterns as an influence But it is not a (uestion that she seems too concerned with and nor perhaps should we be Hadid is an artist, sharing with us her vision of what buildings should be like and alwa!s, as she does so, tr!ing to keep human interests = our interests as users and viewers = at heart 4erhaps we could do with more architects like her
