Can an iconic new building by a world-renowned architect boost the global profile of an already well-regarded higher education institution? Officials at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University hope so. Last week they unveiled the competition-winning design by London-based Zaha Hadid for an interdisciplinary hub that will be home to its school of design, which BusinessWeek ranked among the top 60 worldwide in 2006. She beat out SANAA, of Japan, and Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, of Germany, to win the commission. Images: Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects The shape of Hadid’s new tower for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is reminiscent of a
Zaha Hadid made her New York stage debut last month at Lincoln Center’s performing arts festival, which presented the North American premiere of Ballet National de Marseille’s Metapolis II. The work, which explores themes of urbanism, was conceived by Hadid—who also designed the sets and costumes—with choreographer Frédéric Flamand, the company’s director.
Zaha Hadid receives the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture at a ceremony held today at the University of Virginia. The honor is only the latest for the British architect, born in Iraq, who in 2004 became the first women to win architecture’s top prize, the Priztker. In winning the Jefferson, Hadid joins a distinguished group of architects, writers, and planners including Mies van der Rohe, Lewis Mumford, Ada Louise Huxtable, James Stirling, Frank O. Gehry, and Jane Jacobs. The Jefferson Foundation and the University of Virginia have jointly awarded the medal for architecture since 1966. Former Federal Reserve chairman
Starchitects Join Abu Dhabi's Big Cultural Gambit For architecture lovers its name seems especially apt: Saadiyat, the “island of happiness.” In roughly a decade, this undeveloped piece of land in Abu Dhabi will be home to an unprecedented concentration of buildings by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Tadao Ando, and Zaha Hadid. The Saadiyat Cultural District is one of six neighborhoods planned for a harbor island in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. Spearheaded by Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company, the $27 billion project is intended to increase tourism to this oil-rich Persian Gulf state. It is
If you go by newspapers and monthly consumer magazines, you might think there is only one female architect designing significant buildings today—Zaha Hadid. To be sure, the London-based, Iraqi-born architect deserves acclaim for her inventive assortment of zoomy structures completed in the last few years. But what about the rest? Aren’t there other talented women architects out there, who, like Hadid, run their own design practices?
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