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.”
Last week the studio released a statement, declaring their intention to continue their work “with curiosity, integrity, passion and determination”.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.
