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March 23, 2004
Zaha Hadid burst through architecture’s
ultimate glass ceiling last month, becoming the first woman,
the first Arab, and one of the youngest architects ever to
win the Pritzker Prize, the profession’s most prestigious
award. The 53-year-old, London-based architect, born in Baghdad,
will accept the prize from the Hyatt Foundation in late May
at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Hadid studied at the Architectural Association
in London and was briefly a partner in Rem Koolhaas’s
Office of Municipal Architecture. She has taught at Harvard,
Yale, and the University of Chicago, among others.
Twenty years ago, she became a cult figure
when she won first prize at the Peak International Design
Competition in Hong Kong for her visually antigravitational
design for a sports club. Cantilevered over the heights of
Hong Kong, the entry introduced visual physics into the field
that took new eyes to see. The design quickly proved a foundation
for architecture, a precedent for shifting Modernism’s
paradigm from simplicity to complexity.
Joseph Giovannini
For the complete story on Zaha
Hadid's illustrious architectural achievements see our upcoming
April issue.
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