Gabion: Retained Writing on Architecture
Normal Font Size | Increase Font Size
  About GabionArticlesBooksVaultsContactEmail AlertsSearchStoreHome
 


Zaha Hadid brings subtlety to Cincinnati. Not something it's used to.

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7

Of course there is no Hadid to be found yet in Britain apart from the woman herself and her colleagues in a converted school in Clerkenwell. She won the competition for the Cardiff Bay opera house years ago, only to be stymied by the forces of English conservatism and Welsh parochialism, a deadly combination. She did one of the better bits - the Mind Zone - of the Millennium Dome, but nobody gained any kudos from that project. Hadid, who can seem aloof and who with her heavy accent and unconventional swathes of clothes was once guaranteed to alarm the Establishment, is these days a trimmer and more approachable figure. She still does not have Daniel Libeskind's easy knack of charming everyone within reach. But in the end, the proof is in the buildings. The Contemporary Arts Center is not nearly enough to salvage Cincinnati's wrecked urban fabric, but it shows what can be done elsewhere. Here, for example.

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7

Bookmark and Share