For the final Pritzker Laureate Lecture, Zaha Hadid, Founder of Zaha Hadid Architects and 2004 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, will join Jonathan D. Solomon, Director of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in conversation.
Image above (Jockey Club Innovation Tower School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University): Located on a narrow, irregular site bordered by the university’s sports field and a highway interchange, the tower’s interior and exterior courtyards create informal spaces to meet, establishing a collective research culture where the school’s many design disciplines can interact and learn from each other.
Zaha Hadid, founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 and is internationally known for her built, theoretical and academic work. Each of her projects builds on over thirty years of exploration and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design.
Hadid taught at the Architectural Association school in London and has since held numerous chairs and guest professorships at universities around the world including Columbia, Harvard, Yale and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Hadid’s interest lies in the rigorous interface between architecture, urbanism, landscape and geology as her practice integrates natural topography and human-made systems, leading to innovation with new technologies.
Hailed as architecture that transforms our ideas of the future with visionary spatial concepts defined by advanced design, material and construction processes, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games, and Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku are built manifestos of Hadid’s quest for fluid space.
Her practice recently completed the Oxford University’s Middle East Centre and is currently working on a diversity of projects worldwide including the new Beijing Airport in China, the Sleuk Rith Institute in Cambodia and 520 West 28th Street in New York.
In both 2010 and 2011, Hadid’s designs were awarded the Stirling Prize by the RIBA. UNESCO has named Hadid an ‘Artist for Peace’, the Republic of France honoured her with the ‘Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ and TIME magazine included her in their list of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’. In 2012, Zaha Hadid was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, and the RIBA recently announced Zaha Hadid will be the recipient of the 2016 Royal Gold Medal.
Jonathan D. Solomon, AIA, is Director of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and editor of the art and design journal Forty-Five. His recent book, Cities Without Ground, was reviewed by publications including the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel. Solomon edited the influential series 306090 Books for over a decade and served as curator of the US Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. Solomon holds a BA from Columbia University and a MArch from Princeton University, and is a licensed architect in the State of Illinois.
This program is made possible through the generous support of the Pritzker Foundation. It is presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago’s Architecture + Design Society.
