Patrik Schumacher: 'Zaha Hadid Architects want to tell the world we're still viable'
by Kim Megson | 26 Apr 2016
Patrik Schumacher has vowed the studio will continue their work / Patrik Schumacher/YouTube
Patrik Schumacher, senior partner at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), has pledged the practice “will keep moving forward” following the death of its eponymous founder last month.
“We want to tell the world that we’re still a viable, vibrant address for major work of cultural importance,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.
Schumacher expressed his intention to continue Hadid’s formidable legacy and “become more visible as a leader of the field to clients.”
For many, ZHA is synonymous with its founder, and Schumacher discussed the challenge of stepping in as the studio’s new leader and figurehead. He said: “It’s tough, but any star in architecture has been born in the discipline itself, and emerges through schools, competitions and colleagues.
“My ambition is to become more visible as a leader of the field to clients.”
As a theorist for parametricism – the shaping of architecture through computer design and new materials – Schumacher said the studio would push internal research programmes “to keep moving forward.”
ZHA chief executive Mouzhan Majidi also spoke with the Times, stating there is “a high level of determination in the firm” to continue working.
“We feel very confident that we will carry on and go forward with her vision and her legacy and the experimental research she established in the office,” he said. “It’s not the master architect who dictates and says, ‘Go and deliver it.’ It’s a collective, it’s a team.
“We have to prove ourselves that we can go forward and have our own future.”
They said: “Zaha is in the DNA of Zaha Hadid Architects. She continues to drive and inspire us every day, and we work on as Zaha taught us.”
At the time of her death, Hadid had 36 projects in 21 countries under construction or in detailed design development, and the work continues to flow in.
Today (26 April), ZHA won a design competition for the Sberbank Technopark, a new IT and innovation hub at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre in Moscow.
Patrik Schumacher Zaha Hadid Zaha Hadid Architects architecture design Mouzhan Majidi18 Apr 2016
Zaha Hadid Architects pledge to continue with passion following death of pioneering founder
07 Apr 2016
Zaha Hadid's practice invite people to celebrate her life at London's Serpentine Sackler Gallery
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Tributes pour in for Zaha Hadid
31 Mar 2016
Pioneering architect Zaha Hadid dies, aged 65
Patrik Schumacher, senior partner at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), has pledged the practice “will keep moving forward” following the death of its eponymous founder last month. “We want to tell the world that we’re still a viable, vibrant address for major work of cultural importance,” he said in an interview with the New York Times. Schumacher expressed his intention to continue Hadid’s formidable legacy and “become more visible as a
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