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Zaha Hadid Quotes

Powerful Zaha Hadid for Daily Growth

It's very important that historic cities are allowed to reinvent their future.

- Zaha Hadid

Important, Reinvent, Very, Historic

When you are overworked and exhausted, there is a sense of kind of delirium and that's why I think architects do all-nighters and they kind of do those deadlines. For four days I remember doing four nights in one row with no sleep. I mean nobody, unless you are crazy, would do that, but you are totally focused on the project.

- Zaha Hadid

Doing, I Remember, I Think, Architects

In Iraq, many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran.

- Zaha Hadid

Professionals, Iran, Iraq, Architects

I think that the training of architects allows you to see what will happen ten years ahead of time, or twenty. It's not guessing, it's not intuitive, it's based on research - and we may be wrong.

- Zaha Hadid

Think, Happen, Based, Architects

I've always thought that design can have equal importance to the idea of internal architecture. Professionally, things can be very dogmatic - you do the architecture, someone else does the interiors, someone else does the furniture, the fabric, etc. But I think design is all-encompassing.

- Zaha Hadid

I Think, Very, Internal, Etc

I have always appreciated those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions.

- Zaha Hadid

Always, Experiment, Materials

If I wanted to do clothes or if I wanted to make a building or design a choreography, you are able to do that - they are all under a similar kind of design umbrella.

- Zaha Hadid

Clothes, Kind, Similar, Umbrella

I don't think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.

- Zaha Hadid

Think, Shelter, Very, Excite

Society has not been set up in a way that allows women to go back to work after taking time off. Many women now have to work as well as do everything at home and no one can do everything. Society needs to find a way of relieving women.

- Zaha Hadid

Needs, Been, Set, Taking Time

As a woman, I'm expected to want everything to be nice and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don't design nice buildings - I don't like them. I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthy quality.

- Zaha Hadid

Woman, Some, Very, Vital

What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.

- Zaha Hadid

Buildings, Similar, Britain, Civic

Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.

- Zaha Hadid

Education, Need, About, Qualifications

Women are always told, 'You're not going to make it, its too difficult, you can't do that, don't enter this competition, you'll never win it,' - they need confidence in themselves and people around them to help them to get on.

- Zaha Hadid

Competition, Around, Too, Women Are

Of course I believe imaginative architecture can make a difference to people's lives, but I wish it was possible to divert some of the effort we put into ambitious museums and galleries into the basic architectural building blocks of society.

- Zaha Hadid

Effort, Believe, Some, Architectural

People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that's ok.

- Zaha Hadid

Say, Icon, Icons, Architectural

People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

- Zaha Hadid

Woman, Think, I Think, Dismiss

The spirit of adventure to embrace the new and the incredible belief in the power of invention attracted me to the Russian avant-garde.

- Zaha Hadid

Adventure, New, Embrace, Avant-Garde

The commission process in America and England is different. In America, they do it through an interview process, and it's really based on whether they like you or not. I mean, it's nothing to do with whether you do the best scheme or the worst scheme.

- Zaha Hadid

England, Through, Based, Interview

I miss aspects of being in the Arab world - the language - and there is a tranquility in these cities with great rivers. Whether it's Cairo or Baghdad, you sit there and you think, 'This river has flown here for thousands of years.' There are magical moments in these places.

- Zaha Hadid

Language, Here, Aspects, Flown

My buildings are not particularly expensive. It is not a tin shed. If you want a tinny car, you pay for that.

- Zaha Hadid

Want, Shed, Particularly, Tin

I love driving around east London - it's always full of surprises. Actually, I don't drive myself - I like to be driven.

- Zaha Hadid

Love, London, Always, Surprises

I think about architecture all the time. That's the problem. But I've always been like that. I dream it sometimes.

- Zaha Hadid

Think, Always, Been, I Dream

Of course, my family helped me, my brothers helped me, but after I set up my own office I had to really help myself. Some people seem to think I had an oil well in my garden! It's a nice idea but not true.

- Zaha Hadid

Some, Idea, Brothers, Garden

For many years, I hated nature. As a student, I refused to put a plant anywhere - a living plant, that is. Dead plants were OK.

- Zaha Hadid

Nature, Living, Refused, OK

If you think about making a city that is much more porous, many accessible spaces, that is a political position, because you don't fortify, you open it up so that many people can use it.

- Zaha Hadid

Think, Making, Accessible, Spaces

I have always appreciated designers who dare to reinterpret fabrics and proportions, so I follow the Japanese and Belgian designers. The pieces are so animated. When they lie still, they are one thing, but once you stand them up or wear them, they become something else.

- Zaha Hadid

Lie, Wear, Something Else, Proportions

I used to not like being called a 'woman architect': I'm an architect, not just a woman architect. Guys used to tap me on the head and say, 'You are okay for a girl.' But I see the incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it could be done, so I don't mind that at all.

- Zaha Hadid

Woman, Other, Architect, Reassurance

I have been interested in fashion since I was a kid. Then I lived in London, where it was more about costume and a personal statement of who you are than about fashion.

- Zaha Hadid

London, More, Been, Costume

My father was a socialist, so he would have thought that I shouldn't be a dame.

- Zaha Hadid

Thought, Socialist, Would, Dame

Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?

- Zaha Hadid

Call, Would, Were, Diva

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