Zaha Hadid was the first woman and Arabic architect to win architecture’s Pritzker Prize (26th Laureate), yet there are few academic studies of her ground-breaking career as an international pioneer in the continuation of Modernism and the emergence of ‘parametric’ design. This first PhD project with the newly formed ZHF will combine reinterpretations of her ethnic and gendered context with detailed exploration of her seminal role in reshaping architecture through digital production. The ensuing work will contribute to the development of a major research foundation.
This PhD may span or link three key areas. The work will chart and analyse the translation of her world-famous speculative paintings through emerging digital technologies to inform major innovations in architectural practice; will test her often-vehement criticisms of professional barriers to gender, especially women and those from global minority backgrounds; and will combine these to offer new histories and interpretations of her work. Moreover, the outcomes will test, in practice at the ZHF, how the capturing of digital and process-driven design can shape the construction of architectural archives.
Core research ambitions and questions may include or combine:
- Establishing the roles played and methods used by Hadid in converting speculative paintings and drawings through emerging digital design tools. What effect did these have on her work and subsequent impact on the practice of architecture? What were the key moments in this transition?
- How can formative digital material best be collected, archived and used in understanding design processes and outputs? How should design archives be developed accordingly?
- How did Hadid’s gender and ethnicity impact the realities, perception and legacy of her work? How did she interpret and seek to change this?
- How does this reinterpret Hadid’s career and impact, and wider conceptualisations of both digital technology, gender and ethnicity within critical historical and contemporary design-practice frameworks?
The research may draw on a range of written and practice-based approaches that include architectural, digital, archival, shaped to the student’s expertise. It will include material and digital archival interpretation, oral history through Hadid’s own recordings, and other digital humanities approaches to analyse rich archive records in combination with histories and contexts appropriate to the subject matter.
In particular it may analyse the translation of her famous speculative paintings through adoption of, and experimentation with, contemporaneous software programmes and plug-ins leading to the proliferation of software as a generative design tool, and the impact of this (1970s-2016). It may question how to re-evaluate and archive traces of such processes (CAD drawings, printouts and other archival documentation) considering practical solutions and cultural value in future preservation and development of major archives.
Depending on expertise and skills of the student, opportunities for archival development; exhibition outputs; gender/ethnic based practices; or digital experimentation may become central within the broader cultural framing of the work. Sharing expertise within the supervision team will maximise the possibilities of this PhD.