Keynote Address by Zaha Hadid, followed by a discussion with architect Joseph Givoannini Introduced and Moderated by Sheila Canby

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One of the foremost Iraqis of her generation, and an internationally celebrated architect, Zaha Hadid speaks about culture, transition, and architecture in the evolving Arab World. Zaha Hadid,is an Iraqi-British architect. She received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004—the first woman to do so—and the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. Her buildings are distinctively futuristic, characterized by the "powerful, curving forms of her elongated structures" with "multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry to evoke the chaos of modern life."

Ms. Hadid was born in Baghdad, and first she was a mathematics student but then moved to London to study architecture at the Architectural Association School, where she met Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis and Bernard Tschumi, architects who became leading exponents of experimental European architecture. Her influence in the field began early, with the publication of her designs for unbuilt projects, especially the Cardiff Bay Opera House (1994).

Her first building in the United States, the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, was an immediate critical success. It was followed by major commissions, including the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany; the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany; Maxxi, the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Rome; and a high-speed train station in Naples.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented her first major retrospective in the United States, "Zaha Hadid: Thirty Years in Architecture," in 2006.

She has been commissioned to design the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad.

Joseph Giovannini has written on architecture and design for over three decades for such publications as the New York Times, Architectural Record, Art in America, Art Forum and Architecture Magazine. He has also served as the architecture critic for New York Magazine and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and is currently a contributor to numerous publications including Art in America, Interior Design, and Architect Magazine. Mr. Giovannini heads his own design firm, Giovannini Associates, Published projects have appeared in Architectural Digest, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, A + U, Domus, House and Garden, GA Houses, Architekur und Wohnen, Sites, and Interior Design.

Mr. Giovannini, a graduate of Yale, also has a Master of Arts degree in French Language and Literature from La Sorbonne, Paris, Middlebury College Program as well as a Master of Architecture Degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and at University of Southern California, School of Architecture.

Sheila Canby is Patti Cadby Birch Curator in Charge, Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum

Last updated: 2013-03-06 23:15:44