Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion

Photo © Paul Warchol

Zaha Hadid has advanced the language of contemporary architecture and design,exploring complex fluid geometries and using cutting-edge digital design and fabrication technologies.

For Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion Hadid has create an all-encompassing environment to display examples of the furniture, objects, and footwear she has designed in recent years as well as her three-wheeled Z-Car I, an aerodynamic prototype mimicking several of Hadid's sculptural forms.


Photo courtesy Zaha Hadid ArchitectsZ-Car I, 2006Made by GTM Cars, Kingswinford, EnglandIn collaboration with Kenny Shachter/ ROVE Gallery London.

Combining architecture and design, Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion displays an environment of an undulating structure of finished polystyrene with vinyl graphics based on curvilinear geometries. Exploiting a formal language of fluid movement, Hadid's exhibition design emphasizes the continuous nature of her work, and how the fields of architecture, urbanism, and design are closely interrelated in her practice.


Photo © Paul Warchol

Sleekly curving sofas, tables,and chairs made of materials ranging from steel and aluminum to polyurethane inhabits the gallery, while jewelry, shoes, and tableware, installed together in small groups along a rippling wall represent the wide variety of new and unusual shapes Hadid has introduced into the language of design.


Photo © Paul Warchol
Photo Enrico Suà Ummarino, courtesy Sawaya & MoroniZ-Chair, 2011
Photo courtesy Eduardo PerezMesa Table, 2007Made by Vitra GmbH, Basel, Switzerland.

Some works are disguised as micro-architecture, such as the Coffee & Tea Set(1997), nearly unidentifiable as a set of containers for tea, coffee, milk, and sugar. Others, including WMF Flatware and Crevasse Vases, are more transparent in function.


Photo courtesy Zaha Hadid ArchitectsCoffee and Tea Set, 1995-1996.Made by Sawaya & Moroni, Milan, Italy
Photo courtesy Zaha Hadid ArchitectsWMF Flatware (5 piece), 2007Made by Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik AG, Germany
Photo courtesy Zaha Hadid ArchitectsCrevasse Vases, 2005Production Alessi Spa, Italy.

Among the highlights are a collection of Swarovski crystal-encrusted necklaces and bracelets, and spiraling, strappy shoes made for Melissa and Lacoste.


Photo courtesy Atelier SwarovskiJet Bracelet, 2008
Photo courtesy David GrandorgeMelissa Shoes, 2008Made by Grendene S.A., Farroupilha,Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Photo courtesy LacosteLacoste Shoes, 2008Made by Lacoste S.A., Paris, France.

The design expression behind the collaboration with Lacoste footwear allows the evolution of dynamic fluid grids. When wrapped around the shape of a foot, these expand and contract to negotiate and adapt to the body ergonomically. In doing so a landscape emerges, undulating and radiating as it merges seamlessly with the body./Zaha Hadid

Hadid is interested in the interface between architecture, landscape, and geology, and explores the intersection of these elements with a spatial composition that ebbs and flows in wave-like movements, manipulating the viewer's understanding of space with constantly shifting perspectives./Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger, Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700

Photo © Paul Warchol
Photo © Paul Warchol