Zaha Hadid [Paperback]

Aaron Betsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 1998

For over 20 years, Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born, English-educated architect, has symbolized the vanguard of contemporary architecture. Her continually new forms stun the world of design with their commitment to revolutionary forms. This text - a record of her entire career - includes sketches, plans and models that offer a complete overview of her programmatic and aesthetic concerns. Texts written by the architect and her office reveal solutions to each project.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Aaron Betsky is Architecture and Design Curator of San Francisco's Museum Modern Art. He is the author of Violated Perfection (Rizzoli, 1990) and a contributor to Pacific Edge ( Rizzoli, 1998)
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Thames and Hudson (October 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500280843
• ISBN-13: 978-0500280843
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,350,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Architecture? What am I looking at!, March 13, 2000

By 

Jimmy A. Hendrix - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings and Projects (Paperback)

There is no doubt in my mind that Zaha Hadid is a great architect. Some of the spatial ideas presented in this book are quite appealing, but that's only about 10 or 12 of the pages. What is going on in all the other projects? How do I move through these spaces? The paintings and graphics are cool, but where's the building? Where's the structure? I see how the built stuff is standing, but what about the unbuilt? This is more a criticism of the book than Hadid, since I can't really tell what she's doing in the first place. A lot of this presentation reminds me of when I was in school and people would present a lot of flash and zippy graphics of very rich process, but their building would fall apart with the first step inside the front door (if you could find it in the first place.) I originally got this book to study how to make this dynamic type of architecture work in the real world, but it doesn't take me much further than I was already. If you are very interested in this sort of architecture, don't stop with this book. Check out Frank Gehry: Complete works and anything else with CONSTRUCTION drawings in it, along with the process and the prettys. What makes good designers great is how they make the idea real and workable. I wish I could have seen more of Hadid's solutions better in this book.

If you want to just deal with graphics and ideas, Hollywood might have a place for you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent overview with great imagery, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings and Projects (Paperback)

This book allows for either a new comer or seasoned architect to truly begin to understand the intentions of a great architect. The book remarkably shows an in depth look into the process, motivation and presentational work of one of architectures few succesful female architects. The quality of images is very good and thorough. The one area where this book doesn't completely fulfill is built work. The drawings and gestural models are elegant and spatial but can't fully encompass the feeling of the true structure. A more indepth look at actual built spaces would make this book unable to pass up. Despite this flaw, this book is definately one every post-modern architecture fan should add to his/her library.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars zaha: imagination and magic, July 24, 2001

By 

patoguerrero (Mexico City, MEXICO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings and Projects (Paperback)

I think this book has more to it than technical drawings could ever give. It's an artistic sight of what and how architecture should be thought and viewed like. Colours, shapes and forms seem to spring out the pages of this book. Go out there and see it four yourself, it's not a book about construction, it's a book about ideas.