A new documentary pays tribute to world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid on her first death anniversary by visiting her projects and interviewing her friends, colleagues and collaborators.
Produced by The Architects’ Journal (AJ), the documentary, Zaha Hadid: An Architectural Legacy features interviews with long-term collaborator Patrik Schumacher and other close friends. The Iraqi-born, double Stirling Prize-winner Hadid was just 65 when she died of a heart attack in a Miami hospital on 31 March 2016.
Those who worked closely with her and knew her well described her as approachable, and someone who didn’t change after becoming famous.
Schumacher, who has taken over running Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), described her as ’a natural star, she always felt special’.
Engineer Hanif Kara of AKTII, who worked with Hadid on numerous projects including the 2006 Stirling Prize-shortlisted Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, said Zaha expanded the whole palette of design as she became more famous. He added that the fame never really made her big headed.
AJ editor-in-chief Christine Murray praised Zaha for ’expanding the definition of architecture [and] what was conceived as possible’.
Long-time friend Nigel Coates said Hadid was a ’great inspiration’ to the profession because she had been ’courageous, rarely compromised and stuck to her guns’.
The film was produced by previous AJ architecture editor Laura Mark and filmed by Jim Stephenson.
