Maddison Wright

Intro to Art History

12/5/2013

Extra Credit 3

Zaha Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad to a secular family. Before she took on architecture as her career Hadid studied mathematics at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon and advanced studies for architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. There she became influenced by the Russian avant-garde painters and concluded “modernism was an unfinished project.” Finally in 1980 Hadid had her own architecture practice where she wanted to express not traditional but dynamic and interesting architecture. When the 21st century came her and her practice only but had one architectural building made and many winnings in competitions. She became labeled as a “paper architect,” for she spent years thinking up building designs yet because she did not test them they were seen as “impractical.” Zaha Hadid believes these years where they had more ideas written on paper than building structures in the actual world was good because it was the base for how successful her and her practice would soon become. For in the 1990’s her dedication was beginning to shine through by building structures such as: the Bergisei Ski Jump in Austria, built in 2002, the Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, 2003, the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany, 2005, and the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany, also built in 2005. Following these amazing achievements   in 2004 she was the first women to be awarded the “coveted” Pritzker Architecture Prize. 

In 2009 Hadid constructed the Burnham Pavilion in Millennium Park, Chicago. This contemporary structure was purposefully built so that it can be taken down and transported if desired. Burnham Pavilion is “made of panels of fabric zipped tight over a framework of bent aluminum and steel tubing. Fabric is stretched over the inside of the pavilion as well, where it serves as a projection screen for videos.” The side of the Burnham Pavilion reminds me of a sea shell with nice colors shining from the structure. Colors of light shine on the structure showing green, orange, blue, and violet. 

Today Zaha Hadid is very successful as she has projects coming up in Europe, the US, the Middle Ease, and Asia. Simply putting how she feels now opposed to working her way to the top Hadid states, “We’re having fun now.”

Cited

Getlein, Mark. “What Is Art?” Living with Art. 10th ed. Boston, 

MA: McGraw Hill, 2008. 37-46. Print.

Zaha Hadid, Burnham Pavilion, 2009, Chicago

Zaha Hadid, Bergisei Ski Jump, Austria, 2002