“I am the product of an amazing Iraqi environment and an open-minded society.”

The British architect of Iraqi decent, Zaha Hadid, stated on a TV show that she is the product of an amazing Iraqi environment and an open-minded society at the time, in reference to her Iraqi background. She said in a television program extended to a full hour presented by the BBC, “the sense of architectural output is a result of the fault-tolerant environment that existed at the time in Iraq.

October 31, 1950, Baghdad, Iraq - March 31, 2016, Miami, FL

” Ms. Hadid confirmed that she studied in a great school in which the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian populace coexists, after the TV anchor showed her a picture of herself dating back to the mid-fifties depicting her at her family home in Baghdad when she was little.

The program Who Dares to Win that was presented by Allen Yatop, a British Jew of Iraqi origin reflected a view of the Iraqi reality during the the fifties. It also presented how the international architecture masters headed to Baghdad to design and promote advanced architects, such as the Ministry of Planning on the Tigris River, designed by Le Corbusier and the University of Baghdad in Jadiriya by Walter Gropius. All the Architects hosted by that show agreed that Zaha Hadid is a great architect and superstar, praising the sleek curved lines that characterize all of her work. 
 

Allen Yatop, who engaged previously with very prominent writers and artists in his show of the BBC stated, “Zaha Hadid is the most successful female ever,” referring to her birth in Baghdad in 1950 and residency in London, where she was selected as one of the most successful figures in Britain (2012). Hadid, who is considered a star today through her achievements in this field, has made people all around the world change their way of thinking through the work.

The show displayed the buildings that she designed with her team of 200 assistants, from Austria to Azerbaijan. Zaha Hadid’s designs began to spread in the Arab countries, particularly after the bridge she designed in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Center for the Performing Arts and Culture. She is also about to complete a metro station in the capital Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and before that designed a Center for Studies and Research, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Additionally, she is working on the Issam Fares Institute at the American University in Beirut, while the Iraqi Central Bank ICB design is ready to be executed.
  
The woman behind London 2012’s Olympic swimming pool, Dame Zaha Hadid, was crowned businesswoman of the year at the coveted Veuve Clicquot awards on Monday night.

Among the most important of her works is the Club Peak in Cologne, implemented to Monsoon Restaurant in Sapporo, Japan in 1988 as well as the fire station in Weil am Rhein, Germany in 1991. Aside from the Grand Mosque in the European capital, Strasbourg (2000), the most controversial of her designs are her new, out-of-the-ordinary projects, including the Marina in Palermo in Sicily (1999), and the indoor swimming hall of the Olympic Games in London (2012).
 
Zaha Hadid Architects’ 57,519 m2 (approx. 619,129 sq. ft.) Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, a mixed-use venue featuring a conference hall, library, and museum, is scheduled to open in September 2011 in the city of Baku, Azerbaijan

Hadid considers Rolf Fehlbaum the irrefutable supporter of her success for being brave enough to approve her design “Vitra fire station” without seeing any record of her previous work and without paying mind to the uncertainty of the extent of her once unproven success.

She expresses her love for engineering and smooth Arabic abstract calligraphy through her love of the mathematical concepts that blend logic with abstract values.

Zaha Hadid, who completed her high school studies in the Nuns School, in downtown Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, is considered one of the world’s most famous architects today. She became more interested in engineering when she was studying mathematics (calculus) at the American University in Beirut.
 
The design for the Wangjing Soho. (Zaha Hadid Architects )
She realized the interaction and communication between mathematical logic, the architecture and the abstract concepts in Arabic calligraphy. Engineering and mathematics have a huge connection and a tremendous impact on the architecture.

Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad on October 31, 1950. She is greatly admired in the west, and holds the Medal of Appreciation of the British Queen. She is also a visiting professor or chair professor at several universities. Hadid received many certificates of appreciation from the masters of architecture, such as the Japanese Kanzo Tank, which boosted her name to the ranks of stallion’s global architecture.
 
Hadid, the daughter of the Iraqi Minister of Finance during the fifties, Mohamed Hadid, holds many memories of her homeland Iraq; however, her most influential memory is of the Freedom Monument of the prominent artist Jawad Salim.

Translated by UR / edited by Uruk Shendaj