“Let me set the record straight about that interview. Everyone says I stormed off. Actually I was in a BBC car…so I just got out.”
It is not always easy to tell when Zaha Hadid is joking. The world-famous Iraqi architect speaks in almost one tone, her sense of humour is desert dry and there is a hair’s breadth between her putdowns and her punchlines.
But in this instance, a blink-and-you’d-miss it smile flashes fleetingly across her face. Confirmation that her comment, delivered as part of her keynote speech at MIPIM UK, was indeed for humourous effect.
It was a bold topic to kick off with – not least because the incident in question was not one that Hadid found amusing at the time. That interview was, of course, the now infamous exchange on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last month. It was the day after Hadid had been awarded the 2016 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture and she was challenged by a BBC journalist about 1,200 worker deaths on her Al Wakrah stadium project in Qatar. The claims were unfounded. The BBC issued a grovelling apology and Hadid, it seems, has moved on – to bigger and better things.
The design legend, best known for her cultural buildings, treated MIPIM UK delegates to a keynote speech on some of the worldwide commercial and residential projects she has been responsible for throughout her career. From a social housing project in Vienna through to luxury condos in Moscow, Hadid reminded the great and good of the property world that she is not just the woman behind the Aquatics Centre for London’s 2012 Olympic Games. And that she is capable of creating designs that go “beyond art and sporting venues”.
Following the launch of 520 West 28th, her latest residential scheme on the New York High Line, she is ready to make waves here in the UK – and in London in particular. And she concedes that despite being known for her more horizontal designs, now is an interesting time for towers.
“I have never exactly resisted towers,” she says. “If you have a smaller site then I actually think they are very interesting. In a place like London you have these small sites. And urbanisation means there is less space, too. So you have to go high. And yes, I would absolutely be interested in doing residential and commercial towers here in London.”
As for the city’s current design? She is not entirely convinced. “I am slightly critical of development in London. All that high-density low-rise? It doesn’t permit any public domain. I mean, the quality of work is better than it was in, say, the 80s. But there are opportunities that have been missed to do something really different,” she says.
Such as? “I can’t generalise but there are areas where there were opportunities to do different kinds of masterplans with a different mixture of programmes and I am not sure the most has been made out of them.”
The first lady of architecture remains staunchly tight-lipped on the specific areas that have made her black list. But with her sketch pad at the ready, it might not be too long before the London skyline boasts its own Hadid-stamped tower – a clue, at least, to what she does like.
emily.wright@estatesgazette.com
