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ZAHA HADID Commands the Architecture Does she remember her roots?

History of Architecture thesis AR3Auh25 Instructor Dr. R.J. Rutte Student Tara A. Rauof 1270532

Delft University of Technology

Faculty of Architecture August 2007

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Contents

Introduction

Zaha Hadid Biography / CV

1 Female Architect!!!!

How did a woman from Baghdad conquer a world dominated by men?

Conclusion…

2 Muslim Architect!!!!

Can we consider Zaha Hadid as a Muslim architect?

Islamic architecture… 2-1 Element of Islamic Architecture

2-1-1 Minarets

2-1-2 Domes

2-1-3 Iwans- domed chambers

2-1-4 Arches

2-1-5 Courtyard

2-1-6 Arabesque

2-1-7 Calligraphy

2-1-8 Water

2-2 Features of Islamic architectural tradition

2-2-1 Abstraction

2-2-2 Irregularity

2-2-3 Hidden architecture

2-2-4 Non Tectonic effect

2-2-5 Orientation

Regional versus Universal…

2-3 Le Grande Mosque in Strasbourg France 2000 versus Islamic Architecture.

Conclusion

2-4 The Islamic Art Museum in Doha Qatar 1997 versus Islamic Architecture.

Conclusion

2-5 The sculpture bridge in Abu Dhabi 1997 versus Islamic Architecture.

Conclusion

2-6 The Department of Islamic Art at Musée du Louvre in France 2005 versus Islamic

Architecture.

Conclusion

General Conclusion…

Literature list

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Zaha Hadid Biography / CV

Zaha hadid, the only daughter, among tow brothers of Wajeeha Sabonji and Mohammed

Hadid. Both born and raised in north of Iraq in the third big city of Iraq El Mosul. Her

father, Mr. Hadid a quite powerful man full of strength and morals, in the early 1950s he

earned a bachelor degree in economics from London. In the sixties, he became a social

democrat and a leading businessman. Her mother gets married to Mohammed Hadid right

after finishing high school. Both of her brothers are businessman now.

Zaha's character is shaped by her background, being born and raised in Iraq until the age

of 16. She still has quite nice memories of her liberal environment at home and a diverse

environment at al-Raahibaat High school among Muslims, Jews, Sabi'eans alongside

Christians students. In 1966 she traveled to Switzerland to study the A-level, at the age of

17 and after successfully completing the first year she went to London to complete the

second year of the A-level. In 1968, she left London to Beirut to join the American

University (AUB). At the age of twenty-two Zaha earned a Bachelor of Science in

Mathematics. After that she knew that architecture is her thing so she entered the

Architectural Association School in London, after four years she was awarded the

Diploma Prize in 1977. Rem Koolhaas was her mentor at the Architectural Association

he admired her work very much that he offered her to be his partner at the Office for

Metropolitan Architecture with Elia Zenghelis. But Zaha had her ideas of doing things

differently so she start to work on her own since 1979, she start to enter competitions

after competitions and exhibitions after exhibitions. Her first prize winning was the Peak

Competition in Hong Kong at the age of thirty-two. This was her first opportunity to

move from the competition phase to the real world to compete with her fellow men

architects worldwide. In 1983, she quit her partnership with her two teachers, and in 1985

she moved to her current office in East London. She in not only an architect but she is a

furniture designer, an interior designer, a painter and a drawer.

Since 1987 she is worldwide recognized, she held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate

School of Design and Harvard University, the Sullivan Chair at the University of

Chicago. She is guest professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the

Knolton School of Architecture and the Masters Studio at Columbia University. She was

the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design for the Spring Semester

2002 at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Honorary Member of the American

Academy of Arts. Among numerous awards and prizes Ms Hadid was awarded in 2004

the “Nobel Prize of architecture”, the Pritzker Architecture Prize. And last but not least

she is currently professor at the University of Applied Art in Vienna.

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Awards…

59 Eaton Place, London - Gold Medal Architectural Design, British Architecture, 1982

Honorable Member of the Bund Deutsches Architekten, 1998

Honorable Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2000

Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects, 2000

Mind Zone, Millennium Dome, London - RIBA Awards 2000

Car Park and Terminus Hoenheim North, Strasbourg - FX Awards 2001 Finalist

Car Park and Terminus Hoenheim North, Strasbourg - Equerre d'Argent special mention,

2001

Car Park and Terminus Hoenheim North, Strasbourg - AIA UK Chapter Award, 2002

One-north Master Plan, Singapore - AIA UK Chapter Honorable Mention, 2002

Car Park and Terminus Hoenheim North, Strasbourg - Red Dot Award, 2002

Bergisel Ski-Jump, Innsbruck - Austrian State Architecture Prize, 2002

Bergisel Ski-Jump, Innsbruck - Tyrolean Architecture Award, 2002

Commander of the British Empire, CBE, 2002

Car Park and Terminus Hoenheim North, Strasbourg - Mies van der Rohe Award 2003

Architect of the year 2004, Blueprint Award

Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati - WIRED Rave Award 2004

Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati - RIBA Worldwide Award 2004

Zaha Hadid, Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2004

London Architect of the year, London Architectural Biennale 2004

Honorary Fellow of Columbia University, New York City 2005

Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London 2005

RIBA Medal, European Commercial Building of the Year (BMW Central Building) 2005

Deutsche Architektur Prize, Building of the Year (BMW Central Building) 2005

Finalist for the RIBA Stirling Prize (BMW Central Building) 2005

Her best known projects to date are…

The Vitra Fire Station and the LF One pavilion in Weil am Rhein, Germany (1993/1999)

A housing project for IBA-Block 2 in Berlin, Germany (1993)

The Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome, Greenwich, London, UK (1999)

A Tram Station and Car Park in Strasbourg, France (2001)

Ski-Jump in Innsbruck, Austria (2002)

The Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati, US (2003)

The BMW Central Building (2005) in Leipzig, Germany

The Ordrupgaard Museum Extension (2005) in Copenhagen, Denmark

Exhibitions…

Haro Museum, “25 Years of the Deutsche Bank Collection”, Tokyo, Japan

The Wallpaper ‘Global Edit’, Salone, Milan, Italy

“Zaha Hadid”, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

“All the Best” Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

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1 Female Architect…. How did a woman from Baghdad conquer a world dominated by men?

If someone ask me to mention ten most successful architects in the world? I will be able

to recommends even twenty, but I think it will be quite difficult to memorize a few

talented female architects, quite pity.

Women in general do not rise to the top in Architecture – not on an international level.

Not in the stratosphere where Zaha now moves. It is unfortunately mans world, a club

where woman’s does not get to be invited. And yet here she is the worlds most famous

female architect, a charming women from Baghdad of al places a British citizen now 57

years old but effectively ageless.

I can describe her as a legend. She struggled to made herself, on an interview for the

Lebanese TV, she was asked about her success, was it a matter of being lucky or is it

fate?, she answered “ neither, it is working very hard ”

It is also about working in a man’s world. Architecture en family life does not mix well

for women. That’s why she is single and her private life is unknown. In other fields like

female doctors or lawyers, they proved themselves in a good way. They managed to have

both of them a career and a family life. But in our domain, the problem is that you can

not stop and start, there should be a continuity in the progress of the work.

“But there is still a world that women are prohibited from entering. Not because men do

not want you there. But there is still a kind of taboo. Men go to get clients, they go

canoeing, golfing, yachting, doing sport together” 3. After all she gets what she wants by

operating differently through her talent, grafts, and force of personality.

As a person she is been described in so many ways that I think that I know her

personally. A former assistant of her said once. “It is never dull, but she is a complete

nutcase. You are dealing with a screaming harpy most of the time. In a way it is quite

sad. I think she may be unhappy with herself. She is chaotic”. She is quite moody, on a

bad day she can treat you like a slave, her team is a wear of that but yet it is an honor to

work for her, actually it is my dream to work for her someday.

“A scary ride” this is how they describe joining her enterprise but like I said I am ready to

get a ride with her other 136 employs in London and others in Italy, Germany and China.

Maybe a look back to her childhood would help us to understand the mercurial Zaha.

She is born in Baghdad 1950 of liberal parents. She grew up in a very different Iraq from

the one we know today. Iraq back then was a liberal, secular, western-focused country

with a fast-growing economy that flourished until the Ba’ath party took power in 1963,

and where her bourgeois intellectual family played a leading role. Hadid’s father was a

politician, economist and industrialist, a co-founder of the Iraqi National Democratic and

a leader of the Iraqi Progressive Democratic Parties. Hadid saw no reason why she should

not be equally ambitious.

They were Muslim but they have chosen the catholic school because it was the best at

that time “ they tried to get me to cross my hart and pray” it was a little bit confusing for

her. She talks about her early days in Iraq and says “Despite the political uncertainty of

those army-controlled, pre Saddam days it was a fine city”. Like most of us Zaha and her

family the most professional classes at that time had to quit that country after the rise of

Saddam and the non stop war scenario.

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Her wealthy family was able to send her overseas to study architecture at the architectural

association in London. It was always her dream to be an architect since she was 8 years

old. She was very intrigued by every thing around her such as her mothers beautiful

Italian late fifties furniture or friends who studied architecture. At that time she began to

see things differently 4.

Zaha must still have same thing in her hart towards the country that she came from. She

said always that she would love to do something there “it will be great to combine a way

to rescue that place with architecture”. She describes it as “a wounded society that has to

be rectified first but then with housing and hospitals and educational building one can

start draw architecture to it”. I agree with her there is nothing left of that image in my

head of Iraq. We should start from scratch step by step and it is along journey.

At the architectural association in London, she was a student of the Dutch architect Rem

Koolhaas, Hoe admired her work and saw a rise of a new generation of architect in her

and he had absolutely right. Another witness of her talent was Nigel Coates a student at

the same time, now professor of architecture at the Royal Collage of Art “She was always

exasperatingly volatile. She always did take you to the limit. That’s what we loved about

her, and that’s why her work has got that confidence about it. I always knew she was

special. But I would not have predicted that she would turn out to be as successful as she

is. She’s outdone the men at their own game.”

After graduation Zaha’s life was very tough on all counts. She did not get to the level

where she is right now easily.

“Her path to wide world recognition has been a heroic struggle as she rose to the highest

ranks of the profession. She has a dynamic forms and strategies for achieving a truly

distinctive approach to architecture and its settings” 6.

Her recognition was without doubt when she continues to win competitions. But I think

also her determining to get her original design built at any cost was the key of her

success. She saw in the competitions that she joined, the way to experience her

exceptional ideas and to introduce it to the world. “She always struggles to get her very

original winning entries built. She has used the competition experiences as laboratory for

continuing to hone her exceptional talent in creating an architectural idiom like no other”

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Despite her talent and her originality there is a group of architecture hoe are until now

against her work maybe because they are jealous or just against funny shaped buildings.

It long looked as if those building dreamed up by Zaha could not be realized until 2050.

Such a building witch are strongly influenced by the revolutionary art and architecture of

the early Soviet Union “The Constructivists”, was in the 70’s just a dream.

So maybe the successful British traditionalist architect, Robert Adam was right when he

said what Zaha do is not architecture at all "It is abstract sculpture disguised as

architecture and it's very interesting, but what is the philosophy, the theory, behind it? Is

she just doing these interesting shapes because she can? Once people stop cleaning them,

they will start to deteriorate very quickly. In five or ten years they may start to fall to bits

and you'll be left with some pretty nasty jagged objects." 3.

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After all, the dream became realty in 1983 when she wins her first international success

being a sport club in Hong Kong. This project was never built because of its complexity,

despite the reassurances of her famous engineer, Arup (who made the Sydney Opera

House and Paris's Pompidou Centre).

The Peak club Hong Kong 1991

Hadid's career has been made up of 10-year steps: after 1983 and her winning project,

her first ever building was erected in 1993 being the new Cardiff Bay Opera House and in

2003 saw the opening of her CAC in Cincinatti, a museum hailed by the reputed

architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as "the most important American building to be

completed since the end of the Cold War".

Going back to 1993 and her second big opportunity to design the new Cardiff Bay Opera

House, it is a quite sad story back then. Some did not like a Londoner, a thick accented,

olive-skinned female with attitude at that time to take charge of a key Welsh cultural

building, here again another example of many obstacles in her career.

She was attacked by the press and briefed against. One particular Millennium

Commissioner toke the matter very personally and determined to stop her at any cost.

Of course the campaigns succeeded. On December 22, 1995, her design project was axed

to the benefit of a local architect.

On an interview to the British press, she was asked about her opinion about what

happened then, "Some of the Welsh behaved abominably," she says. "There was a group

in Cardiff - I never understood what their game was. Perhaps they didn't like foreigners,

or women, I don't know. On the other hand there were others who were fantastic. I swear

to God, for maybe five years after Cardiff, people would stop me on the street in London,

in America, at the airport, and say - we're Welsh, and we're very embarrassed about what

happened." 4.

The Cardiff Bay Opera House 1994

This drama was very tough for her, she was so deeply attacked that she had a doubt

moments, should she continue with architecture or not?

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But after all it gave her strength and with the support of her faithful sidekick Patrick

Schumacher, they carry on to enter competitions one after another. And when she found

her self in most the same situation, when she won the competition for the £75m, 20,000-

seat Aquatics Centre in the Lea Valley - to be the home of water sports in the 2012

Olympics, she did not let herself to be the fall girl this time.

The water sports Olympics 2012

Tessa Jowell, the Culture and Sport Minister, said that Zaha’s design had doubled in cost

and she had to reconsider her design. This time Zaha did not hesitate to stop this silly

game, she gets a written apology from the DCMS. "We are grateful for, and supportive

of, the work carried out by your team," and the highly-placed architect Lord (Richard)

Rogers -who had co chaired the competition jury - wrote to the papers in her defense.

The career of Zaha Hadid has not been traditional or easy, it took time to let people

understand her exotic dreams but it did not remain unappreciated after all.

She has now won the 2004 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize

and most prestigious architecture award in the world. The first female architect of global

standing, Hadid will also be the first female Pritzker laureate ever, and the third UK-

based architect (following James Stirling and Lord Foster) to receive the honor. The prize

is awarded to living architects who have "produced consistent and significant

contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture".

Zaha received this prize as a tribute to her talent, to the role model she represents, to the

optimism that her work exudes, and to the integrity and uncompromising ethic stands she

has taken in defense of architectural imagination and freedom 6.

She is such a greatly talented and very persistent and strong woman and jet she was not

protected from poorly written lines in the media, searching for another hidden reason –

why she is being awarded.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2004

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The New York Times reporter- Herbert Muschamp, who wrote constructive reports for

years about Zaha, couldn't swallow all of his pride when announcing about her winning

of the Pritzker Prize! He wrote in the March 22, 2004 issue: "Zaha Hadid is a woman and

Iraqi-born, and her identity is news in its own. It would not surprise me if the jury that

has awarded Ms. Hadid this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize took these factors into

account. The Pritzker's scope has always been international. Never in the prize's 26-year

history has a global outlook mattered more."

He tried to highlighting two issues in his paragraph, the first one by saying that Zaha was

awarded not because of her one-of-a-kind, superior-to- men work, but because of the fact

that she is a women, and the second one was the fact that she is an Iraqi which means

patronizing the entire Iraqi community with this prize, really what a compensation for the

war, robbery and slaughter of Iraqis. And oh ya, what a generosity of the Hyatt

Foundation and the American system! And then his final line, "never in the prize's 26-

year history has a global outlook mattered more," Does that mean that during twenty-six

years, not even one single women deserved to win this Males' Prize? If you check the list

of the architects winning the prize during the last twenty-six years, you will see that it has

been mostly awarded to White Western Males. In twenty-six years, non-white/non-

western men won only three times (from Japan of course).

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Conclusion….

After reading a lot of books, articles and interviews over her at the same time having

myself almost the same background as her, I can say that she is a remarkable women by

all means. She made herself by herself although I can not deny same factors witch can

play a significant role such as ‘Connections’ Thanks to her family connections, she was

never short of a bob or two and there was always stories about the fact that she was never

been short of money and over an enduring story about her family coming to her London

graduate show in Rolls-Royces, she said in an interview “My father would have hated to

sit in a Rolls-Royce, he was very puritanical that way but my brothers may have. People

here thought I was rolling in money, but it wasn't the case. It was difficult to get money

out of Iraq. It was a struggle. But, OK, I can't say I'm poor”.

Being born in Iraq made her path to British recognition quite difficult, it's typical of Brits

to test there best architects overseas first.

The British recognition came obviously late. For more than a decade you could not find

one single building of hers in the capital city London where she has worked throughout

her life. Her project “the pioneering care buildings for people affected by cancer in

Scotland” tell you one thing: now she's welcome in London, too.

To many men and women, she can be viewed as arrogant and vulgar. She is being

described most of the time as a diva, to many stories of her habitually being late, rude,

stamping on unsatisfactory models in the office, smashing computers. Maybe she is

unhappy with herself after all.

Knowing that she has spent a quite long time in Iraq must have affected her in some ways

and It brings me to the second question of my essay witch is ‘what is left of Iraq in her?

“I remember being intrigued by Architecture at the age of 8. I began to read about the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon and everything in the history books, but what intrigued me

was the idea of the architect as a modern figure” 4.

She was once asked if she is feeling as British as her passport now a day?

“I feel very much a Londoner. It's always hit me how British I can feel in other countries.

But with some other things - music, say - I'm an Arab. And I'm an Iraqi. It's not about

being patriotic or nationalist. I can't erase those years I spent in Iraq. And I do like the

country a lot. I had a very nice childhood. There was that wealth, those incredible human

resources, it's unbelievable”.

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2 Muslim Architect!!! Can we consider Zaha Hadid as a Muslim architect? Is she an architect first and a

Muslim second, all of both or nothing of both?

Whatever you think an architect looks like, whatever you think an architect does,

wherever you think an architect comes from, disappointing your selves of those notions.

And consider instead ZAHA HADID, the most extraordinary success story of this time.

Being raised in a liberal, open-minded family allowed her to explore new ways of doing

things and think critically. Being exposed to many different cultures while always

stressing the importance of her heritages, was very significant for her creative

development. Attending a Christian school was the fist step to define the marginality in

her life. “I never had a traditional education as a Muslim. In the Arab world, Islamic

culture and Arab culture are the same. It's a cultural situation, not a religious situation”.

All these aspects give us an idea of the environment where she developed her architecture

style 4.

I think Zaha Hadid is challenging the stereotypes imposed on the Islamic community in

the west. Contemporary in the quality of her design, deconstructive or not, it reflects the

correctness of her bearing imagination as she design she exercises a vital, creative

aesthetic. After all and despite all the efforts to destroy the image of the Islamic heritage

and culture, Islam cannot remain hidebound in the modern world - it is the power of

Islam which compels the adaptation of materials, techniques and design principles of

global Muslim communities, making them dynamic even in the face of oppression.

This dissension between Arab and Western influences in her style is always remained as

undefined question. What I am trying to accomplish with my essay is to find an answer to

the above listed question by searching in some projects of her in the Middle East and

comparing them with types, elements and features of the Islamic architecture.

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Islamic architecture….

The Islamic architecture is a very wide term; witch begins from the Dome of the Rock in

Jerusalem to the Taj Mahal in Agra, of all the cities, from Baghdad to Samarqand and

Istanbul. They have all several languages of architecture with some common features, yet

they were not all the same but in the aggregate, it leads to a creation of a recognizable

architecture family of its own.

The design and construction of most of the building in the Islamic world are influenced

by the spirit of Islam and Islamic culture they have to determine some specific qualities

inherent in Islam as a cultural phenomenon. It can be recognized as different from other

architectures due to the use of special references, elements and features that does not

change its forms easily, if at al. From the foundation of Islam until now, a wide range of

both secular and religious architecture styles has encompassed by the Islamic

Architecture.

The most famous four principle types of Islamic architecture are the mosque, the tomb,

the palace and the fort. Each one have its own elements, so what I will try to do is

collecting the vocabularly of the Islamic architecture style in these buildings to feed mine

research for an easteren flaiver in Zaha’s work 2.

2-1 Element of Islamic Architecture…

I have to begin with the most common element of Islamic style that can be formally

recognized from far away.

2-1-1 Minarets… A tall- in the majority of time free standing- tower with a small cross section [square or

Octagonal]. It consists vertically of three levels, the base, the shaft and the gallery.

According to the location there are different local styles from being surrounded by a

spiral staircase or terminating in covered balconies.

The major function of the earliest minaret was the call to prayers witch is being given

from the top of the minaret. But there is another quite efficient function of the minaret,

natural air conditioning, when the dome getting heat up by the sun the air is drawn in

through open windows and out of the shaft witch is the principle of natural ventilations.

Taj Mahal

2-1-2 Domes…

One of the most beautiful structural solution very ingenious at that time. It can be placed

upon a simple circular base or above a number of arches witch are used to bridge a square

base. Many Domes are provided with a special structure with opening called lantern to

provide the cupola with light and ventilation. There is now a day so many other

architectural areas like sports stadiums that are domed especially in climates that have

widely-variable summer and winter weather.

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Dome of the rock Mohammed Ali Mosque Egypt

2-1-3 Iwans- domed chambers…

A fundamental design unit in the islamic architecture caming origenlay from the Sassanid

architecture of Persia.It can be defined as vaulted spaces open out on one end. The four

Iwan scheme is widely used in Islamic architecture as single balanced plan, but

unfortunately hardly survived in its pure state for long in the Muslim world, as being

dissolute of its balance and absorbed into the greater complex [the mosque-madrasa of

Sultan Hasan in Cairo is a good example of the distortion of the original plan of the four

Iwan scheme.]

Taj Mahal The Great Mosque of Damascus

2-1-4 Arches… Arches are a remarkable ingenious technique for bridging the corner developed by the

Islamic world. Arches have a verity of shapes such as round, elliptical, pointed or

inflexed. They are being used these days too in bridges for example.

Round Arch Elliptical Arch Pointed Arch

2-1-5 Courtyard…

Meanly are private enclosed open to the sky space that are merged by building. They are

mostly used in private house but also in Mosques. It has two functions; the first one is to

provide security and privacy. But on the other hand it have a climate function like

protecting from outside dust, wind, sun and an aid to cooling the building.

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Madrasa of Sultan Hassan Egypt Al-Azhar Mosque Egypt

2-1-6 Arabesque… It became increasingly characteristic element of the Islamic architecture. It depends on

using specific geometric forms applying them symmetrical with changing its scale to

generate a pattern and then repeating them to create a variety of effects. Arabesque is a

beautiful Islamic art to decorate the wall of almost every Islamic building.

2-1-7 Calligraphy…

Calligraphy means beautiful writing. It is the art of using Arabic letters and developing

them to reach a high level of sophistication. It is being used to decorate walls and ceilings

in linear and circular forms. The origin of calligraphy is the holy book of Islam, al-

Qur'ān, some time they are unreadable due to complexity.

Friday Mosque Isfahan Taj Mahal

2-1-8 Water…

Water can be considering an essential part of Islamic architecture, in such hot Islamic

climates water represent the symbol of Wealth, fertility and coolness. So beside its

function of cooling and irrigation in Islamic gardens, it forms one of the most beautiful

element of decoration as it reflect like a mirror, multiplying patterns, emphasizing the

visual axes by extending them beyond the limitations of the physical. Water is being used

in the form of channels and pools, witch are immutable, yet constantly changing; fluid

and dynamic, yet static. Water channels are flowing through marble from room to room

to fill basins and descending in cascades. Pools are also widely used in courtyards as a

sense of openness and repose 2.

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Taj Mahal Nasir-ol-Molk Mosque Iran

2-2 Features of Islamic architectural tradition…

At this point I have to search deeply in the Islamic architectural tradition to highlight

some hidden principle features witch I can use in my further research.

2-2-1 Abstraction…

A specific phenomenon of the Islamic architecture is the abstraction witch means that

there is almost no specific form that can not be adapted by different function rather that

the one it was designed for in the first place and vises versa, a Muslim building with a

specific function can assume a variety of forms. There is no need to design a scheme for a

specific purpose but a perfect scheme, an absolute scheme that can serve several

purposes, a great example of this is the four Iwan plan witch is being used by mosques,

madrasa, bathes and privet dwellings.

Another form of abstraction in the Islamic architecture is the lake of relationship between

the design or the scheme and the location. Any scheme can fit at any time to any location,

far from analyzing the site first to design a building that suite the location.

Madrasa al-Mustansiriya Baghdad plan of a House Zawareh Iran Mosque of Ibn Tulun Egypt

The same form with the same element adapted by different function.

2-2-2 Irregularity…

One of the curious features of the Islamic design is the irregularity of planning. There is

mostly no indication of direction but a cell structure of irregular form. All part of the

building is accumulating around a specific center point of the original scheme. Another

feature witch is greatly related with this issue is the lake of physical direction witch

consequently lead to lake of balance witch can be clearly recognized in all the Islamic buildings, all the time. When an architecture design doesn’t show an axial quality that

means various parts of the building are swimming around in an equal manner and that

allowed an organic growth in almost any direction by just adding new units to the

original scheme, a perfect example of this is the design of Mosques like the Friday

mosque of Isfahan. This represents a huge contrast with the European architecture with

its sense of direction and its completely balanced plan. Maybe the only exception of this

principle is the scheme of the four-Iwan courtyard plan witch is designed to be a single

balanced unit, maybe that’s why it is always being considered as a pre Islamic, Iranian

concept.

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Cell structure with irregular form, all part of the building is accumulating around a specific center point of

the original scheme.

Four Iwan courtyard plan designed to be a single balanced unit.

2-2-3 Hidden architecture… The most dominant form of the Islamic architecture is the full paid attention to the inside

space as opposed to the outside, a maximum degree of contrast between interior

courtyard and an exterior undecorated, unarticulated and windowless walls. Such an

attitude gives the exterior envelop a mystery appearance by means of lake of indication of

the function, the purpose and even the inner organization. You have to really enter the

building to penetrate, to experience the inside world and you will be most of the time

surprised by the rich atmosphere, many architects are working very hard until today to

accomplish such a surprising factor in another frame. A typical example of the hidden

architecture is The Umayyad Great Mosque of Damascus.

Extreme contrast between the interior courtyard and the exterior wall.

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2-2-4 Non Tectonic effect…

Decoration, in the form of Calligraphy and Arabesque, in Islamic architecture are widely

applied to the façade. Beside esthetic values, the decorations have another function and

that is to create a non tectonic values witch means that the Muslims have paid a great

attention to neglect or even hide the element of the structure that are in other architectures

such as European architecture mainly articulated. It is really another huge contrast

between European and Islamic architecture, the first one emphasize the effect of

weightlessness; try to maximize the effects of unlimited space by decoration. Decoration

forms here an illusion, a visual negation of the existence of loads, stresses and weights

and the necessity of support witch was always very crucial in the European architecture

to create a visual satisfaction that the building will stand, on the other hand, the second

one emphasize the mechanism of the building, and the substantial of walls, columns,

bridges and values that are well known.

2-2-5 Orientation…

The most favorite orientation in the world is the south or south-west witch ensure the

maximum advantage of the sun and all the other benefits concerning this issue. All the

buildings in the Arab world are oriented in the same way except one witch is the mosque.

If you draw all the invisible axes running from the mosques in the world towered the

Quibla you will get a matrix that looks like the house of a spider with Mecca, the

birthplace of Muhammad, as the last circle and Kaba, a hollow cube of stone, goes back

beyond the time of Mohammed, as the center point. It is diagonally oriented with its

corner facing the cardinal points of the compass. This liturgical orientation is a

determination for the design of a mosque; every spatial area is shifting along this axis 7.

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Regional versus Universal…

After discussing the most relevant features of Islamic architecture to my research, I have

reached a specific point where a very important issue occurs a question that will forms a

fundamental basis of my essay.

Can we recognize the value of architecture as regional or universal?

If an architect was asked to design for example the embassy of USA in the Middle East,

would he or she design an Islamic looking building that will fit to the context? And if he

was asked to build the embassy of any country of the Middle East in USA for example,

would it be a building with Islamic cultural value?

To answer the above listed questions we have to start by another question witch is how an

architect designs? There is tow fundamental forces that deeply influence the way an

architect think about and imagine his or her design. These two prime forces are, first of

all, Culture witch I can describe as a great reservoir that changes every few years but

still very rich and clam, feeding the architect continuously. The second one is

Aspirations and it is very dynamic and volatile. These tow forces are very different from

each others by means of origin and effect but jet continuously interacting, so while some

aspiration can be quite ephemeral, other may become an integral part of culture 7. The

above mentioned forces are equally affecting all kind of arts from the most pure arts such

as poetry and music to much tougher arts such as architecture. To understand the position

of the design as a point along the axis run between these two forces drawn below, see

diagram 1.

Diagram 1 Diagram 2 Diagram 3

We have to consider tow other forces witch influence architecture more than any other

arts. Starting with the most primary and unchangeable force witch is Climate; the

architect must have a full control over all the complication that can occur by climate

conditions such as sun, wind and rain. At a deep level climate condition cultures itself, its

expression, its rites and rituals 7. Climate can be the source of inspiration, for instance,

Atriums witch open spaces to sky. The last force acting on architecture is the

Technology. It is the most affective force that act very directly on architecture and are

quite time dependent, cause technology developed every ten years and that means

shifting the position of the point in the following diagram {see diagram 2 and 3}.

As the technology changes, the architect have to replace some material with another new

one and that means that he has to take one of the following two ways either to use the

new technology to transfer an old image like the new domes we see today’s, they are

superficially designed to give the old impression. Or he has to get the materials in a

transformation process and reinventing the architectural expression of the mythic values

they represent 7. Both ways can be done but the difference between them is that the first

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way get a superficial, weakened result and it provide no nourishment, but the other way is

full of challenges that makes the architecture interesting and renewable every time the

technology changes.

Thus architecture is the son of those four forces, the resolution of there influence acting

on the transformation process of the design.

So, I believe that architecture is regional not because of its journey back to the world of

the facial imagery but because of its expression of those four prim forces, culture,

aspiration, climate and technology. Although there is always some issues that are

universal. But after all they have to contact with the deep structure that lies beneath.

Despite al the information mentioned above, architecture is not per definition regional

and for every architect the same, that’s why I asked myself whether the architecture of

Zaha hadid is regional or universal or non of both, cause she takes traditional spaces in

her hand manipulating them, sliding them, squeezing them to the unlimited extreme but

jet accomplishing an Excellent balance. Karen Stein one of the Pritzker Juror say some

thing remarkable. “Zaha Hadid has built a career on defying convention—conventional

ideas of architectural space, of practice, of representation and of construction” then she

describe her balanced extreme witch is in a way deeply rooted in the traditional

architecture. “We recognize here a particularly exquisite balance of extremes that is

indeed revolutionary”. Zaha was always an interesting material to European community

maybe because of her roots. “The work, like the person, is not easily categorized:

outrageous yet thoughtful, otherworldly yet deeply rooted in historical tradition, one of a

kind yet a role model for a generation, fluid in effect yet leaving a powerfully fixed

impression, but above all characterized by a daring, restless energy that stretches known

limits of architecture and soars.”

Bill Lacy the Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize Jurors said in his comments about

giving the prize to Hadid.

“Only rarely does an architect emerge with a philosophy and approach to the art form that

influences the direction of the entire field. Such an architect is Zaha Hadid who has

patiently created and refined a vocabulary that sets new boundaries for the art of

architecture.” Does she really try to create new boundary for the architecture or she just

reinvent existing concepts and values out of the rich vocabulary of the lost Islamic

architecture.

In the following part of mine essay I chose for four projects of Zaha Hadid witch are

listed below:

Le Grande Mosque de Strasbourg France, The Islamic Art Museum Doha Qatar, The

sculpture bridge Abu Dhabi and last but not least The Department of Islamic Art at

Musée du Louvre France. Two of them are designed to be built in Middle East, regardless

of whether they are realized or just remained as competition design. I will start to

carefully analyzing them and compeer them with the previous mentioned element and

features of Islamic architecture and I will start with Le Grande Mosque de Strasbourg

witch i think it wil be the easer one becoause it have the same function like the most

famous principle type of Islamic architecture, a mosque.

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2-3 Le Grande Mosque de Strasbourg France 2000 versus Islamic Architecture

elements and features. By looking at the renders of the competition design, you can not say by the first look that

this building is a mosque; it does not have any of the most recognizable elements of any

traditional mosque in the Arab world. The first what you see is an abstract sculpture that

symbolize nothing else but itself.

Was Hadid determined to create such illusion or to generate an innovative perception of

the traditional scheme?

Design concept:

The design is a matrix of different spatial areas that are being established by the

intersecting between two axes, the first one is the axis for prayer or Quibla in one

direction and the curvature of the river in the other direction. Those two axes intersect at

a point fractalizing and generating volumes. Her first step of reinventing old concepts is

by emphasizing the liturgical orientation toward Quibla witch is also none the less the

principle determinant of the design of traditional mosques and by tying it with another

axis of the context. The nucleus or the intersecting point is being occupied by the mosque

witch is forming the focus of the project as a whole. The apex or the focus of this

directional field is thus the mosque itself. Its spatial significance is seen therefore above

and beyond the individual elements that comprise the building, see diagram 1.

Diagram 1: Two axes intersect at a point fractalizing and generating volumes.

Emphasis has been put in the treatment of the overall design to ensure the reflective

quality of enclosure, witch the culture and spiritual nature of this brief and project

demands. And this is established by the positioning of the courtyard, an element deeply

rooted in Islamic architecture, in away that it separates the men and women’s prayers

space. We see here how she used a traditional element to get extra new advantage to the

scheme, the visual separation enhancing the privacy between the men and the women

prayer while providing for additional prayer apace if required. By positioning the women

prayer area as separate hall and opposite to a pure secondary gallery space, she tries to

give same invisible massages by recognizing the contribution of women’s spiritual and

material culture in Islamic society specially, unfortunately a role they have always

maintained in Islam.

Zaha has successfully introduced water into her design in the form of channels drifting

across her plan on the ground floor and in the courtyard forming parallel lines to the

Quibla wall. Water as being a fundamental element of Islamic decoration and being the

source of every thing that has life [mentioned in Quran] is again manipulated by Hadid to

serve another two goals witch are first emphasizing the Quibla wall and its liturgical

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orientation. And secondly by using the subtle and discreet expression of water-flow to

endorse a soothing and gentle distraction.

Calligraphy is being also reintroduced in the design scheme as a layer appears as a part of

the internal skin of the prayer hall by using the elegant classical Thuluth Jali script and

some other Quranic verses. Those scripts are contemplated, selected and executed by

hand by a traditional master calligrapher 1. I think spending such an effort to reintroduce

a traditional element in an innovative frame will complement and contrast the

architectural arrangement, quite amazing feature of Zaha’s talent.

Selecting arches witch is the principle structural element of the building that are also

developed by Muslims in early days refers to her conscious of the sense of harmony and

proportion in Islamic architecture see diagram 2. A non traditional form of calligraphy

being apparent in the flowing lines of the arches and the section of the building.

Diagram 2: The Arch represents the sense of harmony and proportion in Islamic architecture.

Applying the principle of repetition and changing of the scale witch is again an art called

geometry transformed by Muslims, did create a bewildering variety of effects. The arch is

used not only to achieve esthetic values but also provide the striations that set up the

Quibla wall. The fractal space is actually taken from the Islamic geometry to generate a

mosaic or fragmented skin see diagram 3, witch provide unexpected composition of light

and sound 1. The fractal gives the reinforced concrete arches as a primary structure; this

in turn supports a secondary layer of interspersed concrete paneling, glass and ceramics.

Diagram 3: Mosaic or fragmented skin.

Zaha did slice the design vertically in to two part, she land all the secular function such as

the main entry of the building, auditorium, dining area and exhibition space, on the

ground level. The mosque and the courtyard are lifted above the ground removing it from

its urban context and enabling it to form a floating sacred space above the city. The

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exclusive physical connection between the secular part and the religious part of the

building is the courtyard, a dominant element of the Islamic architecture. Its function,

besides providing light and forming the only entrance to the mosque from the ground

level, is also to provide additional outdoor space for prayer when the mosque is full on

Eid or Jumma. The courtyard is the only Islamic architectural element, beside the

historical mosque wall, that is applied in this design with its traditional characteristic

features; witch is forming a private internal central space surrounded by the walls of the

auditorium, the library and the kindergarten.

The last element witch is being carefully introduced to the design is light, by giving it an

extra function of organizing the journey or ascent to the mosque from the ground floor.

The elevated mosque with its slits on the floor enables light to fill the secular function

below. In early Islamic architecture they try to apply materials that are shaped to reflect,

refract and be transformed by light and shade. And to maximize that effect they used

glossy floors and walls surfaces that catch light and throw it over those shaped materials

witch in turn reflected back. What Zaha did is almost the same thing by illuminating the

Quibla wall by light reaching it through slots between the main structural arches see

diagram 4.

Diagram 4: A wonderful composition of light and sound.

Finally Zaha says that the form of the mosque itself is derived from sound patterns,

reverberations and the play of daylight. But what I see by the first look at the form is an

Arabic tent pitched in the middle of rolling sand dunes in the Sahara desert.

Conclusion…

After analyzing the scheme carefully, I reached to a very remarkable point witch is,

regardless of the fact that it is a competition of designing a mosque in Strasbourg in

France and despite the very fist idea that I had that the building does not reflect the

metaphor of a traditional mosque or any Islamic building. It is designed in a way that it

pays respect to the design principle of the traditional Islamic architecture and also it

reintroduces great historical values in an unconventional innovative frame so it can be

translated in Europe. The plan achieves a careful separation in the spatial allocation and

distribution of functional and public areas of the mosque. Its spatial significance is seen

therefore above and beyond the individual elements that comprise the building.

It is a presentation of ascertained sense of harmony and proportion. It illustrate traditional

element such as courtyards, Quibla wall, water, light, geometry and finally calligraphy

witch has served as a point of reference and inspiration for this design scheme, and it

finally introducer new concepts such as Quibla versus river, the elevated mosque, the

story of light and the fragmented skin.

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2-4 The Islamic Art Museum Doha Qatar 1997 versus Islamic Architecture

elements and features. To start analyzing any design nowadays you have to begin by examining the renders

made for the competition, in our case the renders carries none of the expected

architectural references of Middle Eastern domes, arches or Iwans. Jet Zaha Hadid

introduces an interesting interpretation for the qualities of spaces in Islamic culture,

following her creative approach. Unfortunately she did not win but it worth to say that

she was one of the eight competitors reduced from 80 responses.

The al-Thani family, hereditary rulers of Qatar, has been for along time collectors of

paintings, weaponry, glassware, coins, books and manuscripts. To keep them save and to

make them accessible to the public, the government came up with the idea of an Islamic

Art Museum in the capital Doha.

Design concept:

The design is a series of horizontal and sloped planes that lay out as a field of

institutional influence that share a common form. The repetition of the same pattern with

moments of difference is perhaps an echo of the curves of sand dunes or an “urban graft”

a second skin to the site. It affiliates with the ground to become new ground, where

necessary it ascent and coalesces to become a mass. But truly it is deeply rooted in the

Islamic predilection for repetitive line with variety of combination, governed by

mathematical proportion, a field that Zaha command. Here we see another application of

calligraphy the geometry of line, resolving them in the urban context and setting it in an

innovative arrangement see diagram 1. Zaha gives here a lesson that calligraphy does not

have to be always an inscription reflecting a powerful visual sign containing a specific

religious message but it can also act as a sort of identity card of the function the building

contain. She offers the urban field as a world to dive into rather than a building as

signature object with decorative inscription on the facade.

Diagram 1; Repetition of the same pattern with moments of difference. The site that was made available to occupy the project was very large, almost tow

hectare. It forms a key element in the city, surrounded by multiple urban fabrics,

bordering on the pedestrian Corniche, the harbor to the east and the National Museum to

the north. The Islamic city plans can be seen as a reference or a model appears either in

the continuous differentiated field of spaces in Zaha’s design, witch is much influenced

by the natural circumstances expressed through weather condition and topography, or in

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the remarkable adaptation of Islamic architectural concepts like courtyards, terrace,

narrow curved covered streets and gardens, witch is mainly designed to coping with the

hot environment of Muslims world see diagram 2.

Diagram 2: Islamic architectural concepts;courtyards, terrace, narrow curved covered streets.

The proposal of Hadid try to consider the differentially of scales, beginning by the

Islamic arts exhibition spaces in the north near the state museum, then spreads, discerns,

slice and finally fuse into the landscape see diagram 3. The defining feature of the

museum is the waved roof; unifying two parts of the scheme witch are first the museum’s

field of spaces beginning in the north, followed by the galleries terrace towards the south.

Diagram 3: Differentially of scales

The second element of Islamic architecture slotted into the interior of the building is the

Islamic traditional courtyard or al Finas. The concept of courtyard is being integrated into

the proposed scheme to achieve two goals, first of all to bring landscape to the space

within and natural daylight to the heart of the scheme, secondly to create a remarkable

relationship between the inside and outside door. The pattern of north-south development

of the whole scheme is also established in the courtyard 1.

By looking at the top view of the design you will see that the scheme can expand in

almost any direction allowing future growth if needed. And such a non balanced plan due

to lake of indication of direction is well known in the Islamic architecture as Irregularity

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of Planning, and will grow just by adding extra units as new sloped plans to the west or

east of the design or extending the upper or lower end of the waves see diagram 4.

This capability of growth is also mentioned in the brief because the accommodation have

to occupy more additional function in the future such as an education centre which will

offer programs to Qatar schools and the support services areas which will contain stores,

studios, laboratories and workshops.

Diagram 4: The scheme allows future growth. This capability of growth is also mentioned in the brief because the accommodation have

to occupy more additional function in the future such as an education centre which will

offer programs to Qatar schools and the support services areas which will contain stores,

studios, laboratories and workshops.

Landscapes are widely applied in early Islamic architecture because it forms a particular

combination of functional and decorative uses. It is not surprising that Zaha is using such

an element to link the building to the context by means of running from the boundary of

the Corniche to the building edge then sloping down to the main lobby space breaking up

the boarder line between the landscape and building. Such an overlapping between mass

and vegetation will smooth the edges and create an inviting attracting entrance. Many soft

treated surfaces, paths and landscape strips are included in the proposed strategy.

Integrating landscape into the lobby space transformed it to a build landscape of terraced

plateau that lead to the painting galleries at the southern end oriented toward the harbor 1.

Conclusion…

This design that I chose to analyze within mine essay is different from the fist one as

being a proposal design of museum of Islamic art in Doha Qatar, a Muslim land.

After examining most parts and features of the scheme, as far as I could, it is obvious that

there is an overlapping between Hadid's design and the esthetic values of her homeland's

traditions and I mean here by the esthetic values the organic, continuous geometric motifs

woven that are being applying to utilitarian objects. The competition for the Museum of

Islamic Arts in Doha was one of the most defiantly full of challenges and deeply

researched competition ever to have been organized in the Gulf. Because it have to serve

as a cultural resource for the people of Qatar and as a research institute that will attract

international interest and attention of a wide range of visitors from tourists to scholars.

And I think that the design respond to 'the architectural heritage and the contemporary

urban fabric' of Doha despite the fact that it did not won the competition.

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2-5 The sculpture bridge Abu Dhabi 1997 versus Islamic Architecture elements and

features.

The Sheikh Zayed Bridge will be the third bridge connecting the island of Abu Dhabi,

one of the United Arab Emirates, to the mainland including Dubai and the international

airport. The first bridge was the steel arch bridge built in 1967 to connect the south shore

of the Persian Gulf. The second one was constructed to connect the downstream of the

south side of the island built in the seventies. To complete the highway system was a

third bridge necessary, it will have four lanes, an emergency lane for vehicles and a

pedestrian walkway in each direction.

This unique bridge provides access to pedestrians that will enable the bridge to became a

destination in itself and to stimulate the urban growth of Abu Dhabi

Design concept:

The design of Zaha is for sure a design of unusually challenging proportions. The project

manager Henrik Andersen says “The advanced geometry of the steel arches and the solid

concrete piers made it necessary to develop a highly detailed computer model of the

bridge in order to determine its behavior."

Lets begin by analyzing the dimension and proportion of the bridge, it is about sixty-

eight meters wide and 842 meters long, with a central steel arch rise sixty meters above

water level and have a span of 234 meters, it have a cross section of up to 6 x 8 meters.

The main road crosses the bridge at a height of twenty meters above water level. It can be

described by gigantic sculpture snaking between the lanes of traffic or as a structural

strands fixed on one side of the shore then lifted and propelled over the length of the

channel, but I see some thing deeper than that, by looking at the renders, its main

reference or inspiration feature is actually the ingenious technique for bridging the corner

widely used in Islamic architecture in variety of forms and sizes called arches or arcades

see diagram 1.

Diagram 1: arches in an larger innovative setting.

And those technique are used particularly in constructing bridges like the Batman Su over

the Silvan and Bitlis Rivers witch have a central arch that span thirty meters, rising

twenty meters above river level photo 1, the Isfahan bridge witch have a roadway lined

with arcaded niches, photo 2 and last the Samarra Bridge over the Harba River where the

roadway is carried on four wide pointed arches of equal span and height, alternating with

narrower arches set within recessed panels photo 3. So I think the Islamic design idiom

dominate the architecture of the bridge, but also incorporates several western and

contemporary elements to reflect a universal outlook 1.

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Batman Su Bridge Isfahan bridge Samarra Bridge

The purpose behind choosing such a complexity of form and proportion is not only to

create an unusual outlook of a bridge but also the sinusoidal waveform is needed to

provide the structural silhouette. The asymmetrically spring of the steel arch refer, to me

actually, to irregularity of the plan witch consequently can lead to extending of the

structural strand because it does not show an obvious ending of the structural spin. And

this is again another form of Hadid’s making few apparent concessions to her Arab roots.

The bridge features extreme proportions in concrete and steel, the central pier alone

contains enough concrete to cover a football pitch to a height of five meters 1.

Diagram 3: Capability of extending the structural strand

Conclusion…

The design of the bridge incorporates elements of Islamic architecture for sure, perhaps

because of its present in the United Arab Emirates or because of her need to invent new

limits or to push the existing limits of designing bridges further and further as she is

renowned for her obsession with being unusual and unique. Completion was scheduled

for 2006.

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2-6 The Department of Islamic Art at Musée du Louvre France versus Islamic

Architecture elements and features. Musée du Louvre holds one of the most important Islamic Art collections in the world,

more than 3,000 objects waiting in the adjacent Decorative Arts museum to be shown in

public. The two collections will come together in an expansion of the department of

Islamic art in the Cour Visconti, a neo-Classical courtyard of the Louvre. The French are

renowned for there daring to combine contemporary architecture to historic monuments.

And the great example of there courage is the design of I. M. Pe,i the glass pyramid

entrance to the Louvre, witch shocked the world. Hadid’s submission did not win the

competition but her extreme and intriguing design is very relevant to mine research.

Design concept:

Zaha’s proposal was to extreme to win even for guardians of the French patrimony, it’s

being described in so many ways like ‘a cardboard milk container that has been squashed

so that its bottom is severely bent back upon itself while its top is tentatively trying to

right itself’ or a tower skewed like a fish about to leap right out of its cultural pond.

Definitely the design is beyond such a description of milk container bet it is something

fitting for a King, or Queen or Mesopotamia. It promises to give a new look to the neo-

Classical courtyard in a gigantic fashion. But I have here too my opinion witch is that the

design is an abstract, modern sculpture able of adapting almost any desirable function, no

attention is paid to the style of the surrounded building or the history of the location see

renders below.

And this remind me of the abstraction is Islamic architecture maybe in a different, larger

setting but jet the same point of view of designing a perfect scheme that suit any function

and any location. From the mesmerizing renderings listed below you can see that the

mass or the volume does show nearly the same amount of abstraction from any angel of

view.

The second feature witch is quite obvious is her experiment of applying traditional

Islamic decorative technique in a radical innovative direction. She chose a specific

30

pattern like arrows and applied it to the building in the form of opening, then used the

principle of repetition singly or in joined pairs sometimes dark and slightly recessed,

sometimes protruding and golden 1, see diagram 1.

My last point of discussion is why she decides to design a metallic facade punctuated by

golden shining glamour’s decoration features. Is it because of the fact that it will be a

department of the Islamic architecture? if so, then why we can not see the same approach

by any other competitor? I think the only explanation is that she afford to do it she have

the background, the reservoir so why not, an amazing arrogant design that is highly

original 1.

Conclusion…

Here again I chose a competition design of Zaha that is much related to an Islamic

function in one of the largest country of Europe, France. The question of considering the

architectural values regional or universal does appears again with this design. What I

think is that, she did prove that it can be nothing else but regional. Her proposal is a

brilliant masterly introduction of the Islamic historical forces of culture, inspiration to the

western society. Another fact witch is not less important is that, in her scheme we can not

indicate any existence of structure witch in turn reflects a non tectonic image witch

means that she hides the element of the structure by adding such a repetitive of pattern

decorating the volume as a whole. The mass is just standing there without any indication

of support creating a visual negation of the existence of loads, stresses and weights.

31

Conclusion… I believe very much in the power of mythic imagery, witch is one of the basic

mechanisms involved in the design process. Every architect has an assortment of images

that are buried deep in our subconscious witch he or she uses unconsciously during the

design process. And a very good example of such imagery is the architect who designs a

glass tower coming out of the Arabian Desert and justifying it with hundred reasons

except the real reason witch is one of the images saved in his memory of perhaps the

quintessential city of the twenty-one century.

Not all the architect but most of the have access to that world of compulsive, mythic

imagery. By using those images as powerful elixirs is the architect able to transfer the

dross of everyday construction into something more vivid and exiting. And I think Zaha

should be one of them. The Islamic architecture provides a huge reservoir of such

imagery, starting by the desert spreading eastwards throw Yemen and India and westward

to Morocco and Spain. Most of the Middle Eastern artists who live in Europe consider

themselves as essentially secular, they are engaging with the iconography of their

cultures. But in the case of Zaha Hadid she is influenced by the Russian constructivism,

designs technical complicated architecture with partly exccentrical perspectives. Her

projects are seen as base for architecture in the 21st century and she never say that a

shape symbolizes this or that, she talks little about theory. So, you can hardly say that the

Muslim heritage does have contributed to her perspectives.

But I am not surprised that after analyzing four designs of her I came to a conclusion that

Zaha Hadid is being in same way touched by the beauty of the Islamic architecture. She

translates Islamic architectural features to a universal understandable language. Like she

did with calligraphy and geometry, she translates them to a repetition of lines vertically

or horizontally. She designs buildings that can not be interpret or identified just by its

appearance, she let us fly through her designed spaces and give us the feeling as if it

morphs and changes as we pass through, her obsession with Ambiguity and illusion is

without any doubt deeply buried in Islamic architecture tradition. And I believe after all

that there is nowadays no more a single Islamic or Middle Eastern architecture than there

is a single Christian or European architecture.

This essay is attended to be the first step in this direction. I was prepare to have at the end

of mine research a conclusion that there is nothing to be conclude, the idea of mixing

cultures, history and architecture is just an illusion. But fortunately it is there even in such

an extreme case like Zaha Hadid.

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Literature list….

1 Betsky – Aaron - The Complete Work – {Rezzoli international publication, New York ,

2000}

Binet - H- Architecture of Zaha Hadid – {Lars Miller Publishers, Switzerland, 2000}

2 Grube – J – Architecture of the Islamic World – {Thames and Hudson, London, 1978}

3 Hadid - Zaha M - Interview with Levene, Richard and Fernando Marquez {El Croquis,

Cecilia, 1998}

4 Hadid – Zaha – Interview with Marcus Fairs – {Icon Magazine, UK, June, 2006}

Hadid - Zaha M - Interview with Yoshio Futagawa – {Global Architecture, 1995}

5 Hillenbrand – R – Islamic Architecture Form, function and meaning – {Edinburgh

University press, Edinburgh, 1994}

Isozaki – A- Architect Zaha M Hadid – {A D A Edita, Tokyo, 1986}

6 Pritzker Architecture prize citations – {The Hyatt Foundation, Los Angles, 2004}

Singel – P- Zaha Hadid – {Axel Menges, Stuttgard, 1995}

7 Steele – J – Architecture for Islamic Societies Today – {ST Martin press, USA, 1994}