"Frozen fluidity" of the original structures of Zaha Hadid

London - She does not recognize classical shapes, designs, or divisions, thinking instead about movable environments. Her original buildings radiate energy, resembling playful acts of nature, enormous sculptures placed in landscapes; sometimes referred to as "frozen liquidity" of her structures. The work of British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who will turn sixty on Sunday, is diverse: from a fire station in Germany to the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, a ski jump in Innsbruck, to, for instance, the MAXXI Museum in Rome or the Egyptian pavilion at the Expo in Shanghai.
    Born in Baghdad, she became the first female laureate of the Pritzker Prize in 2004, the most prestigious award for architects (only this year did the second woman, Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, receive the award), and this year, the American magazine Time included her in the list of the 100 most influential artists of 2010.
    "I am interested in incomplete compositions. It took me twenty years to convince people that things can be done differently," said this visionary and experimenter, who three years ago served on the jury of an international competition that selected the design by Jan Kaplický and his studio Future Systems, known as the blob, as the winning proposal for the new National Library building in Prague.
    Zaha Hadid was born into a liberal family in Baghdad; her father was an economist and businessman. "I never had a traditional Muslim upbringing," she recalled once, adding that in Switzerland, she even attended a church girls' school, where there were Christian, Jewish, and Muslim girls. She first studied mathematics at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, and from 1972 to 1977 studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London, where she met other famous architects like Alvin Boyarski, Rem Koolhaas, and Daniel Libeskind. She briefly worked at OMA and established her own studio in London in 1979.
    However, Hadid waited a long time for the realization of her own projects, which she filled with her own creative activities, especially painting. In 1983, for example, her sports club The Peak in Hong Kong was not built, nor was the opera in Cardiff in 1994. This created a reputation for Hadid as an architect unwilling to compromise, whose projects are magnificent but exist only on paper. However, this soon changed.

Guggenheim-Hermitage Vilnius, Lithuania

    Her first realized project was in 1993 the fire station for the furniture company Vitra in Weil am Rhein. In her early years, Hadid drew on deconstructivism; her designs had sharp edges and avoided right angles. Over time, she turned towards flowing lines and a "tilted" handwriting. "I am interested in various interpretations, not just one," she emphasizes.
    She built an elegantly simple ski jump in Bergisel near Innsbruck, a commuter transport terminal in Strasbourg, and a real breakthrough was the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2003. At that time, the New York Times wrote that it was "the most significant building constructed in the United States since the Cold War."
    This was followed by a number of other original buildings, such as the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, BMW headquarters building in Leipzig, a cable car in Innsbruck, an exhibition area in Zaragoza, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, an opera in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, or the Egyptian pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Currently under construction is the Aquatic Centre, a swimming stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which resembles a wave on the surface.
    A recipient of numerous awards, she also teaches or has taught at several prestigious schools and engages in design, interiors, furniture, and scenography. In 1999, for example, she created the stage for the world tour of the Pet Shop Boys, designed, for instance, a hybrid car called Z-Car, the Z-Island kitchen straight out of sci-fi, lights, sculptures, jewelry, and shoes made of plastic. "Designing a handbag, furniture, or cutlery is a challenge; I enjoy doing it. I want my work to touch everyone, not just the intellectual and cultural elite. I am sure we should bring a little excitement into people's lives, something unexpected," she said about it.
    When once asked to succinctly describe herself, she said: "A threefold mesmerizing Iraqi who does things outside the norm."