Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBEwas an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first Arab woman who received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, winning it in 2004. She received the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2015 she became the first woman to be awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in her own right...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth31 October 1950
CityBaghdad, Iraq
east middle-east different
Life in the Middle East is quite different from other places.
east-london driving surprise
I love driving around east London - it's always full of surprises. Actually, I don't drive myself - I like to be driven.
art way architecture
The paintings have only ever been ways of exploring architecture. I don't see them as art.
mean america interviews
The commission process in America and England is different. In America, they do it through an interview process, and it's really based on whether they like you or not. I mean, it's nothing to do with whether you do the best scheme or the worst scheme.
growing-up iraq optimism
When I was growing up in Iraq, there was an unbroken belief in progress and a great sense of optimism. It was a moment of nation building.
uniforms firsts mao
When I first came to Guangzhou in 1981, it seemed such a hard and dour place with everyone in Chairman Mao uniforms.
sensitive conscious knows
I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.
thinking people way
People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.
children kids thinking
I don't think that everybody in the planet should have a child. I've never had the desire I should have a kid.
art white kind
You don't always have to show art in what's called a white box; you can have a kind of complexity within an exhibit which actually respects the art as well.
school decision males
I made a decision when I was in school that I'd have a lot of male friends.
beach perfect-days world
Wherever I am in the world, my perfect day begins with waking up and heading to the beach or the pool or somewhere I can be semi-comatose. I just wake up and go to the sun.
architecture tough difficult
Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.
teaching people frightening
No. I don't have the patience, and I'm not very tactful. People say I can be frightening.