Drawings Tell A Story

It all started with me drawing to represent a project in a nonconventional way.

I thought about architecture in a different way.

I thought the tool we have to represent architecture was not useful to me,

And it did not show the meaning of what I wanted to do.

So I started off with really trying to devise a way of projection which was useful to me.

That’s how I started, trying to see it from a different angle.

The drawings become a storyboard.

They tell you the whole story of the life of this project.

by Zaha Hadid

The Paintings Were Like Tests

I still like black-and-white drawings a lot—really crisp line drawings.

I have a personal preference for them,

But I think color is not necessarily used as a decoration.

It shows the temper, in a way.

It also unveils the quality of the architecture.

Every time we painted a drawing,

It changed our view of how the building was actually conceived in terms of materials,

And of its color.

For instance, with the Peak (Hong Kong, 1983)

We really had no idea about how it should be finished.

By the use of drawings and painting slowly but surely,

We’ve developed a confirmed opinion.

The paintings were like tests

by Zaha Hadid

Being A Female Architect

"If you are tough, they tell you you are too tough. If you are not tough, you are too soft. and if you are not that you are a pushy. Every pejorative description on earth is pasted on you... Architecture is a great profession. It is also immensely demanding. But i do think it should be possible for women to survive in it without it finishing them.

"I never thought of myself as a role model... Because it is shocking how in this modern time, it is still very difficult to be a female working in architecture... In all the times I have taught, some of my best students were women. But outside of their schools, it is very difficult for women... A lot of women are part of a team, and even if the woman is the lead person, they are always seen as the second fiddle, no matter how good they are."

Zaha Hadid