Last night’s A+Awards gala was a joyous celebration of great architecture and the talented people that help bring it to reality. However, this year’s joy was tinged with sadness, because 2016 is no ordinary year for the profession: It has recently suffered the loss of one of its brightest stars, Dame Zaha Hadid, who passed away on March 31 at the age of 65.
In advance of the gala, Architizer partnered with Dezeen and spoke with some of architecture’s leading lights and a host of creative influencers about Zaha, her extraordinary life and how she inspired them personally. The following film aired for the first time at the gala, bringing the room together to commemorate one of the profession’s great pioneers:
“Architizer was thrilled to come together with Dezeen to honor Zaha — one of the most influential designers of our time — just as the global architectural community came together to mourn her loss,” said Architizer’s own Marc Kushner. “Zaha was a unique talent, one that is fundamentally irreplaceable, but she will continue to inspire through her work long into the future.”
Each quote from the film constitutes an emotional homage to a woman that transformed the built environment and transcended an entire profession in the process.
“Zaha was a genius. She was doing work that nobody else conceived of, never mind figured out how to build.”
Deborah Berke, Dean, Yale School of Architecture
“Zaha was a pioneer, and she was a star in the firmament of ideas and of poetry. And once a star goes out, there is really no one to replace it. She was unique.”
Daniel Libeskind, Studio Libeskind
© Robin Holland
From left to right: Bernard Tschumi, Helmut Swiczinsky, Wolf D. Prix, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Mark Wigley; via uncube; photo © Robin Holland
“There are very few people in the world who are known by one name. You know that anywhere in the world you can talk about Zaha.”
Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, Serpentine Galleries
“Zaha’s historical significance, I think, if anything, has been underestimated. She’s been a monumental innovator, radically expanding the degrees of freedom one has as a composer in space.”
Patrik Schumacher, Director, Zaha Hadid Architects
“Who knows what extraordinary things would have come out of that imagination if it had another one or two decades to keep producing things?”
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic
“The AA was just this hotbed of radical thinking. And yet, she was the one who I think most successfully exported those ideas and developed it into a language that could then be understood.”
Amanda Levete, Director, AL_A
“What she managed to do, which is so amazing, is to take this entire universe that seemed impossible and unbuildable and completely change our understanding of what is fantasy and what is reality.”
Bjarke Ingels, BIG
From left to right: Paul Goldberger, Glenn Murcutt, Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers and Thom Mayne; via World Red Eye
“When you are an artist or an architect you need immense courage. And Zaha had this immense courage. She radiated this immense courage that was infectious to many, many young people.”
Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries
“She has certainly sculpted out a way through society and architecture which is unique, which is so great that I cannot … Words are not sufficient.”
Richard Rogers, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
“What you hear about Zaha and what she was actually like are two very different things. She was very tender about the people that mattered to her.”
Deyan Sudjic, Director, Design Museum
“She had a temper sometimes, in work, but it came out of an intense will to excellence, and a certain degree of insecurity [about] whether what we had at any time was good enough.”
Patrik Schumacher, Director, Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid in her London office circa 1985; via Wired
“She was so full of energy and so full of ideas.”
Eva Jiricna, Eva Jiricna Architects
“How do you sum Zaha up? A great architect, and a great person. A very special person.”
Norman Foster, Foster + Partners
“The very essence of Zaha was a real romantic, very sensitive, but a warrior, too. That’s how I like to remember her.”
Amanda Levete, Director, AL_A