Zaha Hadid Best Quotes & Sayings

I really love Miami, but I don't think the architecture matches the city. It's a bit too commercial. — Zaha Hadid

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

I am sure that as a woman I can do a very good skyscraper. — Zaha Hadid

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

It's not my duty as an architect to look at it — Zaha Hadid

I'm into fashion because it contains the mood of the day, of the moment - like music, literature, and art. — Zaha Hadid

I am equally proud of all of my architectural projects. It's always rewarding to see an ambitious design become reality. — Zaha Hadid

Like men, women have to be diligent and work hard. — Zaha Hadid

My friendships are very important to me. — Zaha Hadid

Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space ... On the one hand it's about shelter, but it's also about pleasure. — Zaha Hadid

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

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

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

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

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

When I taught, all my best students were women. — Zaha Hadid

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

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

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

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

I don't particularly like showing furniture on pedestals, but for whatever reasons you always have to in museums. — Zaha Hadid

Architecture is particularly difficult for women; there's no reason for it to be. I don't want to blame men or society, but I think it was for a long time, the clients were men, the building industry is all male. — Zaha Hadid

There are so many great galleries and museums in London, but they can be very crowded during the day. — Zaha Hadid

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

I'm a pushover. I make allowances for people if I like them. — Zaha Hadid

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

When I first came to Guangzhou in 1981, it seemed such a hard and dour place with everyone in Chairman Mao uniforms. — Zaha Hadid

I can't focus when there's too many things around. Whenever I used to go to the office, I used to always say, 'Tidy up.' — Zaha Hadid

When women do succeed, the press, even the industry press, spend far too much time talking about how we dress, what shoes we're wearing, who we're meant to be seeing. That's pretty sad for women, especially when it's written by women who really should know better. — Zaha Hadid

I don't think I am that tough, actually. Well, tough in the sense that I don't take any rubbish, and that doesn't make me very popular, frankly. I mean, because some people say something to me, and I just tell them off. I mean, why should I put up with it? — Zaha Hadid

Yes, I'm a feminist, because I see all women as smart, gifted and tough. — Zaha Hadid

I will always have two regrets. I don't have a presence in London, and I would have liked to have done more work in the Middle East. — Zaha Hadid

I made a decision when I was in school that I'd have a lot of male friends. — Zaha Hadid

All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby. — Zaha Hadid