My Comments on Zaha Hadid's discussion

If Zaha Hadid’s office feels more like a factory than an office, it remains difficult for me to imagine it as a happy working experience. I would be bored to death if there were no talking at all. As a student doing my year out, it was through constant questions that allowed me to progress. Hence, in Zaha’s office there is probably no exchange of knowledge but only orders from the dictator herself. Besides, if architecture is about bringing people together for social interaction, then Zaha Office is not doing that.

I think she is right in saying that the computer is not a tool because it contributes to the whole creation of the design. Computers influence heavily on the way designers even think about their project apart from being just a ‘pencil’.

Meades also comments on the fact that Zaha Hadid lives in “neglected pockets of the mid 20th century utopianism” while her office in Clerkenwell is compared to "scents of Dickens”. Similarly, Le Corbusier preferred to work in an old office rather than in his modernist buildings. He believed that only his clients should have the exclusivity and privilege of his own designs and not him. Zaha probably expresses the same kind of branding exclusivity which her design has become over time.

I think a good mixture of old and new buildings definitely creates a unique architectural experience in a city. However, to constantly design buildings that glorifies the past is ridiculous and probably a bad influence for society. Zaha’s ambition to a new style will only help to influence society to look forward and embrace progress.