Zaha Hadid Quotes
When I first came to Guangzhou in 1981, it seemed such a hard and dour place with everyone in Chairman Mao uniforms.
Quotes to Explore
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I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.
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When I was growing up in Iraq, there was an unbroken belief in progress and a great sense of optimism. It was a moment of nation building.
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You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.
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Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.
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Life in the Middle East is quite different from other places.
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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.
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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.
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Wherever I am in the world, my perfect day begins with waking up and heading to the beach or the pool or somewhere I can be semi-comatose. I just wake up and go to the sun.
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You don't always have to show art in what's called a white box; you can have a kind of complexity within an exhibit which actually respects the art as well.
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I am equally proud of all of my architectural projects. It's always rewarding to see an ambitious design become reality.
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I have always appreciated those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions.
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All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.
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Men think a woman should not have an opinion.
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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.
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I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.
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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.
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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.
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My buildings are not particularly expensive. It is not a tin shed. If you want a tinny car, you pay for that.
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It's very important for cities all around the world to reinvent themselves, and Glasgow is a good example of that. The Scots are very nice. I don't think they are burdened by their history.
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As a woman, you're not accessible to every world.
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Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.
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What's nice about concrete is that it looks unfinished.
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The beauty of the landscape - where sand, water, reeds, birds, buildings, and people all somehow flowed together - has never left me.
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Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?