It is absolutely clear Jonathan simply hates Zaha. It seems she is one of his worst enemies and he depicts her as a total architectural monster. He might have some grounds for that, but I feel it`s a bit over the top when he quotes her `using this pidgin, and studs it with syntactical mishaps`. His point comes across immediately and I don’t really see the sense in mocking every single one of her phrases. However, despite all the prise from the modern media, I share similar opinion and the article has once again proved that there are diverse points of view on her influence on architecture.
I personally used to have a friend forking on a `factory`. After being there for a month, she stopped socializing at all, and after she was sacked left the country, even though a poor girl was working 20 hours a day. That’s a sad story, but probably this is the destiny of all people working there. There is a rumour that Zaha prefers hiring couples so both stay late at work and have a fear of being fired together. That`s cruel and inhuman, likewise her buildings. She might be a genius in sketching her iconic buildings, but there is nothing more to add to that. She is super famous for doing ONE-OF-A-KIND building, while what the city really needs are decent contemporary projects for people to live and use in their day to day life, not once in a blue moon. She is famous because she has publicity and, surprisingly enough, architectural tabloids adore her while she still keeps everyone`s attention.
And the project of Hadidopolis - OH PLEASE!!! The city is at risk of becoming NOT sustainable, NOT contextual, NOT budget-tied, NON-structural. What might look good as a one show-off building would never work on the city scale project. It will again be all about metaphors, but with no sense. How can an architect say that he or she wants to design a project `without looking backwards`!!!! She was herself raised on finest traditions of constructivism and avant-garde, which had quite a history behind.
She claims Patrik Schumacher and herself has invented a new style in architecture – parametricism. But the theory lacks consistency and methodology of her favourite exercise of `shape finding`. The theory itself comes out of thin air and looks too artificial alike many of her buildings. For example, The Guangzhou Opera House was built over the past 5 years, a long stretch of time for Chinese architects and construction teams, who work notoriously fast. I truly believe that architectural language she tries to develop should be widely understood by end users, not only by sophisticated architects, otherwise they start positioning themselves like a secret society, like people who are above all the crowd, and act like only they have the knowledge.
All those theories do not bring us closer to the real world`s problems, but create an even wider gap. The humanity has not yet invented the gigantic CNC machine to make her buildings and structures work and there is no need for that either.
Whether we like it or not, the truth is that she is a symbol of the architectural époque and the saddest part of it all is that she will become an example for all other WANNA-BE-A-STAR architects.
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