zaha hadid

Zaha Hadid Was One of the Most Polarizing Architects of Our Time

Zaha Hadid has died suddenly at age 65 from a heart attack. As the first woman architect to achieve notable celebrity, Hadid’s prolific and geographically diverse commissions mean that she will likely remain the best-known woman architect on the planet for many years. But her work was also incredibly controversial— not just the design of…

Zaha Hadid’s New Skyscraper Looks Like a Big Huge Earplug

You might’ve seen Zaha Hadid’s name in the news recently. After Japan’s Sports Council announced a design to her replace her widely loathed and alien-like Olympic stadium in Tokyo. But the real update comes in the form of a new skyscraper in Melbourne. It looks a little bit like… an earplug? In partnership with Plus…

Japan’s Olympic Stadium Debacle May Change the Way Cities Build Sports Venues 

After years of controversy, Japan’s Sport Council has chosen a new design for an Olympic stadium in Tokyo. It will be be smaller, more sensitive to its surroundings, and (relatively) inexpensive—and it could be a model for other host cities. It’s been more than two years since Japan’s architects first revolted against the New National…

Japan Just Cancelled Its Outrageously Expensive Olympic Stadium Design

And in doing so, made itself a poster child for rethinking the insane costs of major sporting events like the Olympics, explaining that it would start over with a new design. Could the tide be turning against the idea that cities have to spend billions to host the Games? Early this morning, the Guardian reported…

What Ugly Building Can You Just Not Help Loving?

We know they’re bad for us. We know we shouldn’t like them. BUT STILL WE DO. What building that everyone else considers ugly occupies an architectural soft spot in your heart? In last weekend’s New York Times, Alexandra Lange asked seven starchitects to defend seven buildings which are hated by the public. Zaha Hadid, designer…

Damn, a Giant Piece of Concrete Just Fell Off a Zaha Hadid Building

In an anecdote straight out of Final Destination: Architectural Terror (coming 2016), Austrian newspaper Die Presse and Dezeen report that a nearly 200-pound chunk of concrete came crashing onto the portico of a new Zaha Hadid building in Vienna. And this isn’t the first time. Die Presse reports that an 80 kilogram—or more than 176…

New building in the Arabian desert looks like an alien spaceship fleet

This is Zaha Hadid’s latest building, the headquarters for UAE’s environmental management company Bee’ah, in the emirate of Sharjah. The company says that Hadid’s “design team found inspiration in sand formations created by the wind’s movement and direction.” I say aliens.

The Fight Over Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium Is Getting Very, Very Ugly 

We already knew that Japanese architects (and the public) are no fans of Zaha Hadid’s massive Olympic stadium—they’ve been protesting the design for a year. But last month things escalated—rapidly—when a whole slew of new insults emerged, and now, Hadid has responded. It’s pretty bad! If you’re just tuning in, here’s a little synopsis. Hadid…

Zaha Hadid Has Designed the World’s Worst Billboard

Well, here it is: the world’s worst billboard. Not that billboards are ever, like, especially great. And that’s why for the most part, cities don’t put up new ones. Or commission one by an architect known for her tone-deaf hubris. It’s like Zaha Hadid swept up some of the trash from her vagina stadium in…

These Alien Skyscrapers Will Rest on the Site of an Old Uranium Plant

The Pritzker Prize-winning starchitect Zaha Hadidjust released images of her latest design—three matching towers for Brisbane’s waterfront—and they look nothing short of alien. Which feels oddly appropriate, since the skyscrapers are also supposed to sit on potentially radioactive land. Hadid’s so-called Toowong development, a complex with 486 apartments and eight villas, is indeed planned to…

6 Buildings Competing For the UK’s Top Architecture Prize

The Stirling Prize is one of the most prestigious of all architecture awards. Named for the great British architect James Stirling, the prize is given annually from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to a single building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture. The shortlist has just been announced. Although the…

How Vacant World Cup Stadiums Could Be Turned Into Housing

The World Cup ends this weekend, leaving Brazil with the heady task of deciding what, exactly, to do with the 12 stadiums that were built or converted for games. Two architects have published a proposal to convert the stadiums into something Brazil desperately needs: Affordable housing. French architects Axel de Stampa and Sylvain Macaux have…

Here’s What Saving $1.3 Billion On a New Stadium Looks Like

Yesterdaywe learnedthat London-based architect Zaha Hadid had rethought her design for Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, after widespread protests and a major budget cut put the original design in jeopardy. Dezeen has the new images of the redesigned stadium, and it’s… pretty damn similar, despite a $1.3 billion budget cut. Dezeen says these renderings were released by…

Cities Are Finally Fighting Back Against Insane Olympic Costs

A petition with tens of thousands of signatures. Protestors in the streets. Fiery op-eds. All this public unrest in Tokyo isn’t over an election or divisive political issue. It’s about the design of the city’s 2020 Olympic Stadium. And the people are winning. After a year of public protests against the design for a new…

The Best Buildings In The World?

The winners of Architizer’s A+ Awards have been announced, and some of the picks are awesome. Here’s a round-up of the best, the most surreal, or simply the most inspiring, from private homes to international airports. Notice any trends? Let us know in the comments—and click through to Architizer to see more winners. [Architizer] Best…

An exoskeleton punched through to form internal skybridges as the triangular trusswork wrapped around the building’s exterior gets tangled up in spiderwebs deep within the resulting, cave-like hollows. No, it’s not a prop in a children’s horror story or a postmodern Charlotte’s Web, but a new hotel and casino proposed by architect Zaha Hadid for…

Architect Zaha Hadid Says 500 Worker Deaths Are Not Her Problem

Qatar’s overtly yonic soccer stadium, a global architectural symbol of the forthcoming 2022 World Cup, has seen its share of the nation’s staggering number of construction deaths: more than 500 Indian migrant workers have died in Qatar since January 2012. This week, the stadium’s architect—Zaha Hadid—said, well, it’s not her problem. https://gizmodo.com/the-grim-secret-behind-qatars-lavish-new-stadiums-hum-1466811510 Speaking at the…

6 Jaw-Dropping Superyachts Designed by Architects

Generally speaking, architects are brilliant and creative people with a wide range of talents. That sort of versatility is part of what makes them good architects in the first place. But let’s be honest. Just because some people are good at a lot of things does not mean they’re good at everything. Take yachts, for…

Too bad this awesome stadium for Qatar’s World Cup is made by slaves

I like Zaha Hadid’s design for Qatar’s flagship World Cup football stadium, but I hate everything else about it, from the modern-day slaves being used to build it to the fact that nobody wants a World Cup in Qatar except the corrupt fat gangsters that rule FIFA. Anyway, now you can take a virtual walk…

The Grim Secret Behind Qatar’s Lavish New Stadiums: Human Rights Abuse

Don’t hate Zaha Hadid’s new World Cup stadium because it looks like a vagina. Hate it because it’ll likely be built with “modern-day slavery,” according to a new Amnesty International report. https://jezebel.com/qatars-new-world-cup-stadium-will-look-like-a-giant-va-1466640033 The internet was aflame this weekend over new renderings of Al Wakrah Stadium, a 45,000-seat venue destined for the desert outside of Doha.…