黑洞社区

Tributes for Zaha Hadid

Norman Foster
鈥淚 am devastated by the news of the loss of Zaha Hadid and cannot comprehend the enormity of her passing away.  I became very close to her as a friend and colleague in parallel with my deep respect for her as an architect of immense stature and global significance.

鈥淪he was one of the very few architects as friends who was invited to my 80^th Birthday Party in London last year.  By a strange coincidence some days ago I received an email from one of her clients 鈥� someone she had designed a home for.  With great pride he sent me about twenty pairs of images.  Each pair showed the visualisation that Zaha presented and the reality as finally built.  It was a beautiful juxtaposition of what Zaha promised and what she delivered.  I was so looking forward to sharing with her these intimate insights.  Tragically that will never happen.

鈥淚 think it was Zaha鈥檚 triumph to go beyond the beautiful graphic visions of her sculptural approach to architecture into reality that so upset some of her critics.  She was an individual of great courage, conviction and tenacity.  It is rare to find these qualities tied to a free creative spirit.  That is why her loss is so profound and her example so inspirational.  And, besides, she was my dear friend.鈥�

Richard Rogers
鈥淪he was a great architect, a wonderful woman and wonderful person.

鈥淎mong architects emerging in the last few decades, no one had any more impact than she did. She fought her way through as a woman. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker prize.鈥�

Bob Sheil, director, The Bartlett School of Architecture
鈥淭he world has lost a true visionary. She was an extraordinary artist. Her work has become associated with technology, but really it extends from her experiments with drawing, painting and space. She was way ahead of her time; always ahead of her time.鈥�

John McAslan
鈥淭his is devastating and tragic news. Zaha Hadid was a phenomenal force in the world of architecture. An incredible character - brilliant, fearless, and irreplaceable.鈥�

Amanda Levete
鈥淪he was an inspiration. Her global impact was profound and her legacy will be felt for many years to come because she shifted the culture of architecture and the way that we experience buildings. When my son was very young, Zaha showed him how to write his name in Arabic. It was the moment I realised the genesis of her remarkable architectural language.

鈥淪he was an extraordinary role model for women. She was fearless and a trailblazer - her work was brave and radical. Despite sometimes feeling misunderstood, she was widely celebrated and rightly so.鈥�

Jane Duncan, RIBA president
鈥淭his is absolutely terrible news. Dame Zaha Hadid was an inspirational woman, and the kind of architect one can only dream of being. Visionary and highly experimental, her legacy despite her young age, is formidable. She leaves behind a body of work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, that delight and astound people all around the world.

鈥淚t was only last month that I had the enviable task of awarding Zaha the 2016 Royal Gold Medal for architecture 鈥� she was delighted to receive the recognition and adds the medal to an amazing collection of awards, not least winning the RIBA Stirling Prize two years running. The world of architecture has lost a star today.鈥�

Angela Brady, former RIBA president
鈥淶aha was a great architect and worked so hard to produce such stunning project around the world that have her distinctive designs
I loved her style and tenacity, she was a tough architect which is needed as a woman at the top of her profession and at the height of her career. She will be sadly missed as an iconic leader in architecture and as a role model for women in architecture.鈥�

Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery directors
鈥淗er contribution to architecture as a pioneer and visionary cannot be overstated, and barely a week goes by without a landmark building opening somewhere in the world,鈥� they said.

鈥淶aha Hadid was not only a great architect but also a great artist and she leaves an extraordinary body of work not only as built form but also paintings and drawings where she often explored the ideas that would later be transformed into architecture,鈥� they added. 鈥淲e are honoured to have collaborated with her on numerous occasions and her loss will be deeply felt by us and the world over.鈥�

Peter Murray, chairman, New London Architecture
鈥淶aha鈥檚 influence on the architecture of the last quarter of a century cannot be underestimated. She changed the way we look at buildings and the way we make them. There are uncomfortable resonances with Jim Sitrling鈥檚 equally untimely death. The suddenness is so, so shocking and the world is poorer for the work that they would have created had they survived a proper span.

鈥淪he did not build enough in her adopted country, yet she was as responsible as anyone for London鈥檚 global reputation as a creative hub. Much was made in the press of Zaha鈥檚 diva-ish reputation, but my lasting memories of her are those when she went back to the Architectural Association, her alma mater, where her essential carapace fell away and she was able sit down and discuss ideas in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.鈥� 

Asif Khan
鈥淵ou rocked our world Zaha Hadid. Godspeed and thank you.鈥�

Will Alsop
鈥淪o bad to lose Zaha so early. I hope her spirit lives on.鈥�