Zaha Hadid died in 2016, at the age of 65. She was certainly not old, according to the standards of our time, although in most professions, her best years of work would have already been behind her. However, she was an architect, and at 65, most of the architects are still at their peak. Take Rem Koolhaaswhich remains today a leader of the office of metropolitan architecture in the 1980s – and who, in the 1970s, was one of the teachers of Hadid at the architectural school of the architectural association of London. This is where Koolhaas gave his promising and unconventional student the mission to base a project on the art of Kazimir Malevich.
More specifically, as the architect Michael Wyetzner explains the new Architectural digestion video aboveHadid had to adapt one of Malevich's “Arkhitektons”, who were “objects that took his ideas of forms he used in his paintings” – the best known among them being Black squareFrom 1915, previously presented here on open culture – “And transformed them into a 3D room.”
To understand the formation of Hadid, we must therefore return to Russia at the beginning of the 20th century in which Malevich operated as an avant-garde artist, and in which he launched the movement he called Supremacywhose name reflects “the idea that his art concerned the supremacy of pure feeling, as opposed to the representation of the real world.”
As a pioneer of “non -objective” art, Malevich did his part to inspire Hadid on his way to the design of buildings that are similar to abstraction that technologically possible. In fact, during the initial phases of Hadid's career, which we consider as its architectural style with a high signature curve – illustrated by buildings like the London Aquatics Center and the DongdaEmun Design Plaza in Seoul – was not technologically possible. Examine his first paintings, as One of the Pont Hotels based in Arkhitekton, she went to Koolhaasor his first projects built as the Vitra firefighters In Weil Am Rhein, we show us how his ideas already evolved in the directions and then practically unthinkable in architecture. Zaha Hadid has now disappeared for almost a decade, but his field is still in the respect.
Related content:
An introduction to the world renowned architect Zaha Hadid, “the queen of the curve”
ABC of architects: a flipbook animated by famous architects and their best known buildings
Which makes Kazimir Malevich Black square (1915) not only of art, but important art
Based in Seoul, Colin MArshall Written and broadcastTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the substack newsletter Books on cities And the book The stateless city: a walk through Los Angeles from the 21st century. Follow it on the social network formerly known as Twitter in @ColinmArshall.
At Learnopoly, Finn has championed a mission to deliver unbiased, in-depth reviews of online courses that empower learners to make well-informed decisions. With over a decade of experience in financial services, he has honed his expertise in strategic partnerships and business development, cultivating both a sharp analytical perspective and a collaborative spirit. A lifelong learner, Finn’s commitment to creating a trusted guide for online education was ignited by a frustrating encounter with biased course reviews.