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Digital
Hadid. Landscapes in Motion |
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 Patrik Schumacher "Digital Hadid. Landscapes in Motion" Birkhäuser, Basel 2004 pp. 96, $11.17 buy the book online and save! |
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| [in
italiano]
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In
ninety three pages and thirteen project essays, Patrik Schumacher demonstrates
how Zaha Hadid's work has been seminal for the establishment of digital
architecture in the last twenty years. The book stresses the extraordinary
continuity from the early radical projects of the eighties to the more
conspicuous production of the nineties and today. Representation and
design are two inseparable sides of Zaha Hadid Architects' production:
the move from big scale paintings to digital visualization has not implied
an adjustment of design to the new means of representation, but has
increased its natural complexity. Zaha Hadid's view on architecture
has always been digital, in the sense that it has relied on curved deformations,
multiple focal points, and extreme angular views. "One of Hadid's most audacious moves was to translate the dynamism and fluidity of her calligraphic hand directly into equally fluid tectonic systems. Another incredible move was the move from isometric and perspective projection to literal distortions if space and from the exploded axonometry to the literal explosion of space into fragments, from the superimposition of various fisheye perspectives to the literal bending and meltdown of space" (p. 17). |
[26apr2005] | ||
 Hotel Silken - Hotel Puerta America. Madrid, 2003-2004. This crucial operation represents the core of Zaha Hadid's originality in the current architectural works. Also, part of the reason why her work remained for so long on paper. The surrealist action on the basis of her work is a continuous cross feeding of representational media, from perspective to plan and back to perspective. Seminal to Hadid's computer-based work are her own paintings, where distortion of views and superimposition of planes reach a level of complexity that is difficult to achieve with the simple use of 3D modeling and distorted camera views. Another important operation is the making of study models in the form of reliefs. Hadid's reliefs have traditionally been made in the form if white cardboard models or "top views", but they have also been used for perspective reliefs, non-models that illustrate "extruded" perspective views by means of a traditional modeling material: these view models represent a shift, in that they can also be easily read as plans, therefore translated into "top views". This cross feeding of plan and perspective started well before the introduction of computers in Zaha Hadid's practice. The use of computer has made radical her personal way of making architecture in its enforcement of distortions to achieve a kind of spatial complexity that is difficult to control without utilizing digital tools. |
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 Ice-Storm, MAK. Wien, May-August 2003. 3D modeling software and NURBS surfaces are now introducing in Zaha Hadid Architects' production a smoother and more organic fusion among parts. Like Kipnis stated with his concept of Graphic Space, Zaha's drawings were never pure representation or simple formal research, but necessary tools for design production. Early drawings were a means of altering and modifying the plan, leading to the disappearance of difference between 2D and 3D. Now 3D modelling allows for a new spatial complexity that is quickly obtained through new digital means and is particularly visible in the built work.  BMW Central Building. Leipzig, 2002-2004.  BMW Central Building. Leipzig, 2002-2004. In a concise manner, Patrik Schumacher's book manages to point out how the use of 3D software allows for the creation of complex spatial deformation and new plastic articulations. Space is the primary actor in Zaha's latest buildings. Forms are enriched with complexity and lines adapt to each other generating organic fusions among parts. Built works show the radical spatial qualities of the early drawings from the eighties. The BMW building in Germany or the Contemporary Arts Centre in Rome, for instance, illustrate the peak of a constantly renewing spatial research, reaching a subtle and calibrated complexity that, as Patrik states in Digital Hadid. Landscapes in motion, is capable of resisting easy decomposition. Monia De Marchi moniademarchi@hotmail.com Manuela Gatto manuela.gatto@zaha-hadid.com |
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