Zaha Hadid, Groundbreaking Architect, Dies at 65 (nytimes.com) 72
An anonymous reader quotes an article on The New York Times about the death of Zaha Hadid: Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-British architect whose curving, elongated structures left a mark on skylines around the world, and who was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize, her profession's highest honor, died on Thursday in Miami. She was 65. Ms. Hadid "contracted bronchitis earlier this week and suffered a sudden heart attack while being treated in hospital," her office, Zaha Hadid Architects in London, said in a statement. [...] She was also a role model and inspiration for generations of young architects, men and women, who wanted to become Ms. Hadid: an architect of boundless ambition, a celebrity, and an artist with big ideas who won commissions for some of the world's big, flashiest projects by the sheer force of her intelligence, creativity and personality. Ms. Hadid epitomized an era when architects became global brands. Her brand promised buildings of extravagant sculptural invention, spectacles of curving, swooping, unprecedented forms. She represented the epitome of the art of so-called parametric design, by which architects, aided by sophisticated computer programs, could animate buildings into new shapes. You will want to read her profile on The Guardian.
Bad pun, moderate downward (Score:3, Funny)
Isn't it the construction crew, not the architect, who are "groundbreaking"?
Immigration and Refugee asylum (Score:3, Insightful)
At the time of her death, just a reminder that she also represents why Immigration and Refugee asylum is essential.
Growing up in Iraq, she eventually migrated to Britain before creating a mark globally. Made the lives of many a little bit happier as art does.
Listen to the xenophobes and such talent may not get the recognition it deserves and humanity would lose talent that could have been.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Many of those asylum seekers are highly educated, some of them are even architects. We helped turn their countries into war zones.
You should try to get past the asylum seeker label and realise that these are individual human beings, not a homogenous group.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The vast majority aren't.
Did we? I'm sure their medieval religion and generally barbaric attitudes had nothing to do with it at all.
I'm sorry, but the buildings dont look good. (Score:3, Insightful)
I just looked at her work in images.google. Do not want. They are not really that pleasing to look at. I like the Roman/Greek and large medieval/renaissance buildings - golden ratio, "perfect" aesthetics. These Zaha works are just ugly and trying to be different and lead to higher cost, hard to maintain with that comes leaks and I don't think they are aesthetically pleasing.
Re:I'm sorry, but the buildings dont look good. (Score:5, Funny)
These Zaha works are just ugly and trying to be different... I don't think they are aesthetically pleasing.
Sorry, but all the good-looking designs have been taken. If you want to prove to the world that you're a brilliant artistic genius, which they make everyone swear an oath to do in architecture school, then you have to make something ugly, because that's all that's left.
You're probably just not smart enough to see the Emperor's clothes--er, I mean, the beauty.
Re: (Score:2)
I like her work. It reminds me of the brutalist style, but pleasing to the eye.
Everyone has different tastes, but as architecture goes I'm finding hard to see how her buildings could be considered ugly. Can you cite any particular ones you dislike?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Her company's interior designs are nice, but the exteriors are reminiscent of generic modern sculptures which scream "Look at me, I'm art!" but lack beauty or emotional power.
Also, I don't know what's going on in her drawings, but I'm pretty sure it's not architecture.
Re: (Score:2)
They look nice but if you actually want to have space that you can utilize then you might want another architect.
Re: (Score:1)
Lessons from my father:
"An architect builds a monument to themselves with another person's money."
Re: (Score:1)
Re:I'm sorry, but the buildings dont look good. (Score:4, Interesting)
I just looked at her work in images.google. Do not want. They are not really that pleasing to look at. I like the Roman/Greek and large medieval/renaissance buildings - golden ratio, "perfect" aesthetics. These Zaha works are just ugly and trying to be different and lead to higher cost, hard to maintain with that comes leaks and I don't think they are aesthetically pleasing.
Completely agree. She always came across to me as a self-righteous individual who had no qualms about wasting other people's money. Based on her whining about losing the Tokyo stadium, I would guess she was a pain to work with as well. [dezeen.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I like the Roman/Greek and large medieval/renaissance buildings - golden ratio, "perfect" aesthetics.
And other people like other things. I'm with you on practical issues like leaks -- a building really ought to work before it does anything else. But you really can't scale up those old Medieval buildings before you end up with a dull ungainly monstrosities like those horrible baroque palaces in central Europe. They make Soviet Brutalist architecture look playful.
And as for classical architecture -- how do you apply that to a skyscraper or office block? Consider that many of this woman's buildings would d
When id /. become Jezebel? (Score:1, Insightful)
Why is a tech site celebrating this woman, because she used a computer at work? WTF, is there a feminist story quota on /. now?
How proficient do you need to be at Word to get a write-up now?
Re: (Score:1)
Why? To make all the easily-manipulated, self-entitled MRAs scream and whine, thus increasing pageviews and maybe clicks! Profit!
Re: (Score:1)
I know, right? I just looked through the last three days of Slashdot articles, and was overwhelmed by sheer weight of the single article about a female.
When will this onslaught of one single article about a woman (who has achieved more in her life than you and all your descendants ever will) end? It's feminism gone mad!
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe because we are sick of hearing about Arabs blowing things up and oppressing women, and its nice to have a good-news story (even if its an obituary) about an Arab woman building things. (Explains it for the Guardian, anyway.)
The Makers (Score:4, Insightful)
Why is a tech site celebrating this woman, because she used a computer at work? WTF, is there a feminist story quota on /. now?
doesn't seem out of place to ask the geek to at least acknowledge the accomplishments of women in architecture and engineering. particularly as expressed in a body of work of such extrordinary audacity and technical sophistication.
I read this on google news hours ago (Score:1)
What's the tech/geek tie-in? What's the point of coming to a 'news for nerds' website when there are other much better sites to get the same news?
Re: (Score:2)
What's the tech/geek tie-in? What's the point of coming to a 'news for nerds' website when there are other much better sites to get the same news?
Well, she did design the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum [freep.com], which was used for a location in the new Batman vs. Superman [lansingstatejournal.com] movie. Is that geeky/nerdy enough for you?
Improving the world (Score:1)
So for those that think all Muslim or middle-eastern peoples are destructive terrorists:
In 2004, Hadid became the first female and first Muslim recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Here's a woman who dedicated her life to building great things, rather than tearing them down. I wish that more could use her as an role-model.
Re: Improving the world (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes.
Exactly. A lot of of architects that were much more hyped that her have designed things that are worse both from a pedestrian/user/sufferer and from a high-brow artistic point of view.
That's very fortunate. We've already had
Re:Improving the world (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Architects (Score:2)
I worked in a couple architecture firms too while in college, I feel bad for kids coming out of architecture school. They're pretty much taught/told to be the next great architect then get out in the real worl
Retro futurism (Score:2)
I bet a lot of her work was considered "modern" at the time; but when I see this type of architecture I immediately think "60s" +/- 10 years I'd say this style was a big deal from '50 to '70 but by '80 it got tiring.
I like a little modernism though. Remember WaMu? They were a bank that went bust in 2008 and got taken over by Chase. Their building in downtown Redwood City is arguably "just a cold modernist box", but there's something about the way it contrasts with the surroundings, and the way that it's
Re: (Score:2)
Because she got sick in Miami?
Seriously, if you need medical attention you're not going to Florida. And if you go to Florida you aren't going to go to Miami, you'd go to Florida Hospital in Orlando.
Personal experience (Score:1)
I've worked in a building complex designed by Zaha Hadid (the BMW plant office complex in Leipzig) and I have to say that concrete never looked so good. The design is timeless and beautiful.