SUMMER, ZAHA HADID AND TYPHOONS

In these days of hot summer, before holidays, we have time to see in perspective what is happening with some projects of Architecture. Maybe it's typhoons season in China or just a minor maelstrom, the case is that from different points, last month, was "questioned" one of the last works by architect Zaha Hadid, Opera House Guangzhou. I sincerely believe that there are some exaggerations, but also some realities in what some describe, as exaggerated architecture by Ms. Hadid.

Opera House, Guangzhou, China by Zaha Hadid. Photograph © Iwan Baan.

Since base, to deal what type of architecture is what is to come, which is finishing after years of economic boom and crisis, we have realized this small summary, from New York, Chile and London. Estimated readers, the conclusions are yours. Good summer!!

On 5 July, the month began with a headline in The New York Times, New York, in the line of praise towards Zaha Hadid which it used by Nicolai Ouroussoff, "Chinese Gem That Elevates Its Setting". Quickly in the second paragraph, as if he needed justification, a small point of criticism of the accelerated construction processes typical of China and other places not so far:

"It says something about the state of architecture today that the most alluring opera house built anywhere in the world in decades is in a generic new business district at the outer edge of this city, has no resident company and a second-rate program.

And because this is China, a country that is still undergoing cultural growing pains and whose architectural monuments are mostly being built by unskilled migrant labor, the opera’s construction was racked with problems and the quality of some of it is abysmal."

On July 12, Katerina Gordon, from Chile, in an article for Plataforma de Arquitectura, in a somewhat alarmist, but not without arguments, titled "Opera House by Zaha Hadid in China begins to collapse."

Katerina said, joining the project situation in China at the situation differently in Chile: "the Prado de San Sebastian, which can not continue with their work halted since 2009 and today the Opera House of China has serious structural problems".

..."Este proyecto fue inaugurado hace menos de un año en la ciudad de Guangzhou al sur de China y ha sido catalogado como una de las más grandes obras contemporáneas de China. Al parecer una mala ejecución del proyecto ha llevado al colapso de los materiales, han aparecido grandes grietas en muros y cielos, se han desprendido vidrios de sus ventanas y han habido filtraciones tras lluvias. Además han debido cambiar más de 75.000 bloques de granito pues estaban muy mal fabricados.

El Opera House tuvo un coste superior s los £113 millones y tomó más de 5 años su construcción. Según Yu Huiyano, subgerente de la empresa constructora encargada del proyecto, asegura que no se trata de un problema en la calidad del diseño sino que al comenzar la construcción no se tomó en consideración la complejidad del diseño."...

On July 15, Jonathan Glancey, from London, the Guardian still recognizing the value of the work of Zaha Hadid was still on the same line of criticism or at least thinking, recognizing the situation, but also mitigating some exaggerations about the Opera in Guangzhou, with You Simon statements (project architect the Opera House) from China:

"I've just been to inspect the building. It's typhoon season and its been pouring with rain, but rain isn't 'seeping relentlessly into the building' as has been reported. Glass panels haven't fallen from windows and no large cracks have appeared. I'm not sure what all this is about. Yes, there's still a lot of snagging to be done; we've demanded a high standard of work from what is often seasonal labour, but the flaws are superficial.

Last week was the opening of the Aquatics Centre in London, where the Zaha building with a cover that reminds us the best of her work appeared with two ears or side dressings and Rowan Moore commented that: "One of the Most Gorgeous Turned spaces out to be the view of the pool underwater Through the windows seen Provider for TV cameras. It looks like an art installation. "

Well, it's hot and maybe the best is underwater. Good summer!!

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ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid, (Bagdad, 31 October 1950 – Miami, 31 March 2016) founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize (considered to be the Nobel Prize of architecture) in 2004 and is internationally known for both her theoretical and academic work.

Each of her dynamic and innovative projects builds on over thirty years of revolutionary exploration and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design. Hadid’s interest lies in the rigorous interface between architecture, landscape and geology as her practice integrates natural topography and human-made systems, leading to experimentation with cutting-edge technologies. Such a process often results in unexpected and dynamic architectural forms.

Education: Hadid studied architecture at the Architectural Association from 1972 and was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977.

Teaching: She became a partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at the AA until 1987. Since then she has held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois, School of Architecture, Chicago; guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg; the Knolton School of Architecture, Ohio and the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and Commander of the British Empire, 2002. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Awards: Zaha Hadid’s work of the past 30 years was the subject of critically-acclaimed retrospective exhibitions at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2006, London’s Design Museum in 2007 and the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy in 2009. Her recently completed projects include the MAXXI Museum in Rome; which won the Stirling award in 2010. Hadid’s outstanding contribution to the architectural profession continues to be acknowledged by the most world’s most respected institutions. She received the prestigious ‘Praemium Imperiale’ from the Japan Art Association in 2009, and in 2010, the Stirling Prize – one of architecture’s highest accolades – from the Royal Institute of British Architects. Other recent awards include UNESCO naming Hadid as an ‘Artist for Peace’ at a ceremony in their Paris headquarters last year. Also in 2010, the Republic of France named Hadid as ‘Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in recognition of her services to architecture, and TIME magazine included her in their 2010 list of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’. This year’s ‘Time 100’ is divided into four categories: Leaders, Thinkers, Artists and Heroes – with Hadid ranking top of the Thinkers category.

Published on: August 3, 2011

Cite: "SUMMER, ZAHA HADID AND TYPHOONS" METALOCUS. Accessed

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