LISTEN: Zaha Hadid Architects is looking to reconnect with London developers put off by the “perceived public persona” of its late namesake, Dame Zaha Hadid.
Practice director Patrik Schumacher, talking in detail for the first time about the future of the firm, said that misconceptions among developers in the UK capital that the Iraqi architect was “hard to control” had blighted her practice’s attempts to win work in the city for years.
Hadid’s closest confidant for more than 30 years, Schumacher has now stepped up to run the practice following the sudden death of the world-renowned designer earlier this year at the age of 65.
With a fresh focus on winning work in London, he said that his “perceived more mellow and withdrawn personality” could be attractive to developers in the UK capital.
“I think Zaha’s perceived public persona and the way people saw her did prevent us from getting commercial work in London,” he said.
“We signalled interest again and again, and there was this overriding perception that her personality was just too strong. But she was so misunderstood. What a lot of people thought of her was just not right.”
Within weeks of Hadid’s death following a heart attack in Miami on 31 March, the practice set out its stall with an announcement that it would continue to operate under the same name.
However, Schumacher – who joined Zaha Hadid Architects in 1988 – told Estates Gazette that he would “never say never” regarding changing the brand and name of the firm in the future.
For now, he said the main focus was on “trying to pick up the threads” following Hadid’s death and concentrate efforts on winning fresh work without input from such an iconic architect.
Hadid, who was born in Baghdad in 1950, was known as much for her innovative curved designs as for her strong personality. “Men don’t listen to me,” she said back in 2008. “That’s why I have to give them hell.”
Read the full interview with Patrik Schumacher >>
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