The gallop through her career really starts with the 1982 Peak Apartment Complex competition win in Hong Kong. The project put Hadid on the world stage but success in terms of built work took much longer to arrive. The built projects are illustrated along a dreamy projection wall and include the Vitra Fire Station, The Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, and the BMW factory in Leipzig amongst others. The dream-like sequence of photographs, video, and computer 3D animations suggests a metaphor for her career itself – almost as if this is too good to be true. The dreaming continues with models of works in progress such as the Guangzhou Opera house, and the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts centre and even threatens to become reality in London with the Olympic Aquatics Centre.
For some, the intimacy and sensuality of the work can best be appreciated in the smaller scale sofas, tables and other products. Here, I felt it would have been possible to demonstrate how the forms, volumes, and materials of the products were substantive, practical, usable even by everyday people. But sadly, visitors were not encouraged to sit on the furniture, nor serve refreshments from the curiously shaped teapots – a missed opportunity perhaps.
Finally on one wall is a list of everybody who has ever worked for Hadid – and it can been seen that this is an exhibition about a great architectural practice not just a single person.
Reviewer: Christopher Hill >> more at designmuseum.org
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