Interview with Woody Yao
Jun 4th, 2007
The other day we went to speak to Woody Yao (above - sorry about the photo, a better one is coming soon!), the project director at Zaha Hadid Architects who is in charge of the forthcoming exhibition at the Design Museum in London (below).
We spoke to Woody about the show and about how Zaha’s office has grown over the 13 years he has been working there:
Tell us about the show at the Design Museum.
We’re taking over the two levels [of the museum]. Actually not completely the two levels because I think [fashion designer] Matthew Williamson is doing something on the top level (below) too.
For level one we have the archive going back to 1982, 1983: the major paintings, a full-scale model of The Peak; and we’re showing the Vitra furniture going back to 1985. And that will be round the outside where the wall space is; with one big space about The Peak; from sketches to paintings and the model.
In the middle space we’ll have a selection of major paintings and on the other wall we’ll have a 25m long projection showing a combination of exhibitions, pavilion projects, build projects - which are projects on site - planning and so on.
In the middle of the gallery, we call it “explosions” – explosions of Zaha’s architecture. We’ll exhibit three major build projects: MAXXI [“Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo”, or Museum of 21st Century Art, above] in Rome; Cincinatti [the Contemporary Art Center, below]; and Wolfsburg [the Phaeno centre], plus some old projects. Also we’re showing construction drawings as well.
How does the scope of the show compare to the show at the Guggenheim in New York last year?
Of course the Design Museum is a smaller space. But I see it as a very different space.
So you haven’t just imported the show from New York?
No, no, absolutely not. It’s a very very different show. Different ideas. The upper level [at the Design Museum] is mainly objects; it’s talking about all the products that have been designed by Zaha. There are a couple of tables that are under production at the moment that have not been seen before. One is for Vitra and one is for David Gill Gallery.
The Peak [a 1983 competition-winning proposal for a sports centre in Hong Kong, above] was never built, but presumably you’re featuring it in the show because it was an important early project for the office.
Absolutely yes, it was an important moment for Zaha in London at the AA [Architectural Association School] at that period of time. So we’ve got old work surrounding new work in the middle.
How long have you been working for Zaha?
Thirteen years. When I first started there were five to seven of us. We were all one whole unit; we moved from one project to another; competitions mostly. Now we have about eight units; we’re talking about 250 people at this very moment in London. We have five staff in China because the Guangzhou opera house is on site at the moment. We have a team in Germany – a couple of staff – and there is a team of about 20 in Italy to deal with the Italian projects. But the design is always coming from Bowling Green Lane.
So you’ve gradually taking over the whole building here…
Yes we are – apart from one unit. It used to be a Victorian school house. When you come in you see there is a North Entrance and a South Entrance – one was the boys’ entrance and one was the girls’ entrance. We love it here.
What projects was the office working on when you joined thirteen years ago?
When I started we’d just finished Vitra [Fire Station - above]. Then the Dusseldorf project came up – the Media Centre – but it didn’t get built in the end. At the same time we were doing the Cardiff Bay Opera House competition when I joined the office, and also the Spittelau Viaduct project in Vienna.
Wasn’t the Vienna project only completed recently?
Yes, it was one of those projects that was start, stop, pending…
For so long Zaha’s office was best known for projects that did not get built. But in the last few years you seem to be building all over the world. When would you say that the studio reached a turning point?
I would say after the Cardiff Bay Opera House (above); after that we got the commission for the Cincinnati museum. Things really started after that point. Cardiff Bay was a turning point, even though it didn’t get built.
Maybe you got more publicity because it didn’t get built…
I don’t know, but people saw Zaha’s name on a weekly basis in the UK newspapers.
When Zaha started, the way she expressed architectural ideas in her paintings was revolutionary; it was like computer-generated imagery before computers. But do you still work like this, with paintings and cardboard models?
We do… of course the computer has caught up! We do our best to keep working in all different media. At the same time if you work on a computer you have to keep printing, so you can compare. It would not good be a good thing to just work on computers.
What kind of input does Zaha have on projects? Does she initiate ideas, or do others have ideas and show them to her?
It all depends. It still works very much like a studio; I see Zaha as the master. Sometimes she does sketches and shows them to us and we go back and come up with more ideas.
Which projects are you working on now?
I’m running the project in Guanghzou – the opera house. I tend to go there once every two or three months. But of course in the office there are a lot of other things, a lot of exhibitions, so I’m doing a lot of other projects.
I notice that some of the recent projects that have been unveiled, such as the Expocenter project in Moscow and the Szervita Square project in Budapest (below), seem to suggest a change of style. It’s all gone quite rounded, steely and glassy.
I don’t know about that. There’s about 30 years of research here; it’s not like we just started two years ago. I would say we kind of tried everything already, whether it got built or not. Certain things suit certain sites, but there’s always a link between one project and the next.
