Simone Sagi writes…
Aug 7th, 2007
In 1977 a starchitect was born. 30 years may have passed since Zaha Hadid graduated from The Architectural Association, yet her presence remains an integral part of AA culture. In 2006 the AA Gallery hosted an exhibition celebrating the technical achievements of Hadid’s newly opened Phaeno Science Center. The private view was witness to the architectural equivalent of Beatlemania, crowds filling every inch of 36 Bedford Square hoping to catch a glimpse of the lady herself, when she lectured the following week a student fainted. Zaha it would seem has become as iconic as her buildings.
Having worked on the AA exhibition, I was keen to see what The Design Museum had produced. Staging architectural shows is always challenging. The built environment, immobile by nature, leaves the curator the task of transporting the building or at least the experience of the building to the gallery and its audience in some other way. Zaha Hadid Architects has a prolific catalogue of built works and projects in the pipeline; this exhibition has clearly cast an unenviable curatorial gauntlet.
