Zaha Hadid Quotes

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

People often ask me if I consider myself to be an architect, fashion designer, or artist. I'm an architect. The paintings I've done are very important to me, but they were part of a process of thinking and developing.

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.

With products the form is almost the finished piece, but with architecture it is not.

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

The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal.

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.

It would be very interesting to design objects for everyday life, something where the ideas that are expressed can be launched into society.

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

Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.

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

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.

I always thought I was powerful, since I was a kid.

Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.

The current state of architecture and design requires extensive collaboration and an investigative attitude and we continue to research and develop new technologies.

You really have to have a goal.

You really have to have a goal. The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal. Know what it is you want to find out.

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.'

My work first engaged with the early russian avant-garde; the paintings of moholy-nagy, el lissitzky's 'prouns' and naum gabo's sculptures, but in particular with the work of kasimir malevitch - he was an early influence for me as a representative of the modern avant-garde intersection between art and design.

I used to not like being called a 'woman architect.' I'm an architect, not just a woman architect. The guys used to tap me on the head and say 'you're OK for a girl.' But I see an incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it can be done, so I don't mind anymore.

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.

I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.

I like music. Country, hip-hop, R&B, sometimes classical.

Education, housing and hospitals are the most important things for society.

I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.

You have to be very focused and work very hard, but it is not about working hard without knowing what your aim is!

In terms of form, all the projects interest me equally, although there are obviously large differences according to the scale and process of each project.

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.

I don't think that everybody in the planet should have a child. I've never had the desire I should have a kid.

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.

I don't like the masculine style, jeans. I like issey miyake... and black dresses.

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.

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

In hospital, people should be able to have time to themselves.

You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.

Different projects give you satisfaction in different ways.

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

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.

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.

I really believe in the idea of the future.

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

Life in the Middle East is quite different from other places.

Know what it is that you are trying to find out.

Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.

A brilliant design will always benefit from the input of others.

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.

The world is looking more and more segmented, the difference between people is becoming greater.

There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?