Friday 1 April 2016

Vale Hadid

I woke up to receive my first news of the untimely death of Zaha Hadid, via Inhabitat.  Never carefully accurate, the Inhabitat reporting listed amongst Hadid's achievements the design of the London Olympics Stadium.  Small matter, but of course, Hadid did not do the London Olympics Stadium.  That was done by  Sir Robert McAlpine and Populous, taking an approach to sustainability which it is unlikely Hadid would have.  Her firm did the swimming and diving venue, with the famous controversy over restricted sight-lines.

Hadid will receive scholarly and personal obituaries commensurate with her stature, so I will not attempt one here. 

Zaha Hadid is a great loss; she has exerted a very large influence over contemporary architecture.  I tried very hard to admire her work, but it is likely she will be remembered with mixed feelings. 

If it can be said that the modern movement brought itself into discredit because of its adoption by developers and architects of lesser talents, Hadid's seminal formalism is being brought into disrepute by the shoddy examples produced by her own firm.