A Woman Who Needs Just One Name
- Andrea Lee
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
by Andrea Lee
Wild & Human
Zaha.
I’d be lying if I said Singapore was the first time I had heard architect Zaha Hadid’s name. In fact, Zaha was the representative Z in my children’s high brow “Baby’s First Names: An ABC of Modern Architecture and Design.” It was a picture book we used to read before bed and my kids loved it.
Also, her name came up more than a handful of times during my 10 years at a design firm in San Francisco, California. From where I stood she was the definitive modern-day female architect who was and will continue to be revered for her contributions to the field. However it wasn’t until Singapore that I actually walked into one of her designs.
This is my tribute to why she is inspiring to me. Let's start with Inspiration Point #1: Get your name in a children’s book! You’ll know you’ve arrived.
Zaha Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq to a high ranking diplomat father and her family’s status provided Zaha with a first-rate education and opportunities to travel throughout the world exploring museums, important historical buildings and cultures. In interviews, she would credit these summer travels with her family as the source of her love of design and buildings. Inspiration Point #2: Keep traveling with kids.
She obtained a mathematics degree from the American University in Beirut, and in 1972 moved to London to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. It was in London that she proposed “Malevich’s Tektonik,” a fragmented and layered hotel design for her graduating thesis project. Based on the paintings of Russian Suprematist painter, Kazimir Malevich, this thesis would come to typify her unique, geometric aesthetic and set the tone for her oft-emulated, yet evolving style over the years.
In 1980 she opened the doors of her own studio, Zaha Hadid Architects, in London, and began a teaching career. In earlier years her emerging reputation as a leader in her field was largely due to her colorful and imaginative paintings of yet unbuilt projects. Many saw her designs as fantastical, yet unrealistic and costly. Her radically different designs were published in architectural journals and her name became one to remember anyways.
Inspiration Point #3: Keep pushing forward anyways. Keep dreaming anyways.
After boundary-pushing for a quarter-century, in 2004 Zaha became the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for architecture and her profession’s highest honor. She put even more prestigious honors and awards in her back pocket in forthcoming years, and her designs took on a new gravitas and even more attention followed.
Inspiration Point #4: Win some awards before many of your best projects are even built. We’re so good at our job, just the theory makes people go “wow!”
With even more attention on her designs, in 2005 she completed a plan for the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany. It was an ambitious engineering feat of concrete with horizontal and vertical planes broken down and entire surfaces required to work together to support the structure. The design required composite math more complex than engineers had previously had to solve at this larger scale. Solution: Let’s create an entirely new software with the building, allowing all users to have quick answers to changing inputs. This today is known as “parametricism” and it's been key to moving her designs from theory to construction ever since.
Inspiration Point #5: When the math or some other technical aspect hasn't caught up to your designs - you know you’re on to something innovative. Keep dreaming and designing while the others catch up.
Spanning her career, Hadid's diverse projects have included a firehouse in Germany, a ski jump in Austria and an arts center in Cincinnati. I’ve included a short list of some of her other projects at the end of this article for reference. With a style that’s contemporary, as well as evolving over the years, it's a challenge to capture her aesthetic in one sentence - however words like “curvilinear” and “sensual” are a good place to start. She’s been called the Queen of Curves for a reason and how cool is it that we get to have three of her projects here in Singapore: (1) D’Leedon condominium complex off Farrer Road; (2) two private villas off Nassim Road near the Singapore Botanical Gardens; and (3) One-North’s ambitious masterplan in Queenstown.
Of these three Zaha Hadid projects only One-North is accessible to the public, officially. No Americans were arrested in the researching and photographing of this article.
D’Leedon sits along Victoria Park and Kings Road and completed in 2014, it is a condominium complex consisting of 7 undulating towers (1723 units!) and 12 villas. The towers occupy less than 30% of the property with an impressive 70% consisting of lush green landscaping woven through facilities such as pools, spas, clubhouses, shops and food establishments. You can see Zaha’s preference for malleability and curves in both the buildings and the layout of the facilities and transitional spaces.
Two Private Villas on Nassim Road were designed by Hadid in 2007 and sit within the lush hilly terrain adjacent to the south end of the Singapore Botanical Gardens. The only information available on these was on the Zaha Hadid Architects website. They display the same curves and sprawling, yet overlapping voluminous spaces that we see in D’Leedon’s design.
Zaha Hadid, Nassim Villas, 2007, Singapore.
Courtesy: Zaha Hadid Architects; render © Zaha Hadid Architects
Lastly, One-North is the ambitious business-research park master plan created by Hadid in 2001 in junction with JTC Corporation. It takes its name from Singapore’s geographical position one-degree north of the equator. (Oh yeah, that's why it's so hot here!) Consisting of 8 precincts including Fusionopolis, Nepal Hill, Vista, Biopolis and Launchpad, the development serves as an integrated work-live-play-learn space, however the beauty is in the details.
One North Masterplan, 2001, Singapore. Left: sketch Right: night view, model photography © Zaha Hadid Architects
The land planning for One-North is closely tied to the topography of the land with building masses laid over and within the existing hilly terrain as if a pliable layer draped over the entire neighborhood. This was a conscious choice on Hadid’s part as it kept the natural feel of the land. As you walk through the transitional spaces between buildings the climb and descent are perceivable, whether as a gradual incline/decline or artistically landscaped stairs, as they mimic a natural, unbuilt terrain. An unexpected side effect of all of these variations is the necessity to pay attention to where you’re going. It was nearly impossible to photograph and walk at the same time!
Left: Plaza at One Metropolis showing topography changes. Right: Stairs and greenery flow into the entrance to Wilmar
With all these pedestrian paths and roads weaving through buildings, there is an interconnectedness in its criss-cross fashion and profuse throughout these public spaces is lush greenery and beautiful landscaping. Small gardens and walkways seemed to crop up around every corner providing intentional spaces for contemplation and conversation. At the core of One-North is its park that touches almost all of the 8 districts and functions as a continuous green spine. As a result, you can walk from the very futuristic Connexus with its shush of air conditioning and be in what feels like a deafening jungle (hello, bugs) within three minutes thanks to the centralized park.
Speaking of walking - certain elements of the land planning for One-North also create a more pleasant experience for pedestrians. Buildings are situated closer together to provide shade and preserve wind corridors, while curbs are lower and paths are cobblestoned. The landscaping, trees,and fountains feel human scale and with the landscaping at human scale and the buildings scraping the sky, you feel at once embraced while also brought to awe. Pedestrian heavy areas are also light on vehicle traffic with simple two lane roads constructed of stone, not concrete.
Left: Humanscale landscape features amidst towers. Right: Pedestrian-centric materials and layout
With its original hilly topography intact, ample green spaces and human scale details, One-North's master plan sets the stage for other architects and designers to carry the vision forward in its building designs. From the award-winning StarVista to the black and green Razer headquarters there are many noteworthy buildings within One-North, often showcasing eco-friendly features like solar panels and rooftop parks. Autonomous vehicle trials are routinely carried out at One-North and then there's that mirrored hotel made out of shipping containers. Thanks to Zaha and her team’s framework, One-North has that campus vibe where everything seems to fit together with just enough variety to keep things exciting and evolving for the years ahead.
Last Inspiration Point: Work so that the decisions you make not only inspire other people to do their best work, but create new spaces where they can shine, too.
As a visionary architect of the 21st century, Zaha Hadid set the bar for emerging architects and specifically female architects everywhere. You can count the number of world-renowned female architects on one hand, let alone ones born in the Middle East - and the goal is to see that change in years ahead. Sadly, Hadid passed away from an unexpected heart attack in March 2016. Many articles seen online after her passing reflect on her role as a visionary who redefined the field with an underlying tone that she was the mentor everyone loved and respected, and yet had never met in real life.
Her legacy lives on through her firm Zaha Hadid Architects now with offices in London and Beijing. And you’ll be seeing Zaha Hadid Architects in the local news more in the coming months and years as they, along with local firm Architects 61, will be designing Singapore’s new Science Centre slated to open in 2027. Everything we already know about it points to the life of a woman who dreamed her own dream and made vision a reality. What could be more inspiring than that?
Reference of Zaha Hadid’s Designs Around the World
(Images Source: Zaha Hadid Architects)
Left: Vitra Fire Station, 1993, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany. Photograph © Christian Richter
Middle: MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, 2009, Rome, Italy. Photograph © Zaha Hadid Architects
Right: Guangzhou Opera House, 2010, Guangzhou, China. Photograph © Iwan Baan
From left: (1) Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport, 2011, Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph © Hufton & Crow (2) Zaha Hadid, Heydar Aliyev Centre, 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan. Photograph © Iwan Baan (3) Wangjing SOHO, 2014, Beijing, China. Photograph © Jerry Yin. (4) Jockey Club Innovation Tower, 2014, Hong Kong, China. Photograph © Iwan Baan
 | Andrea Lee’s column “Wild and Human” explores nature and how we relate to it, as well as the beauty in being both primitive (wild) and civilized (human) in our modern world. Her column is inspired by her California roots and her family’s recent move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Singapore. |
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