img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Zaha does the Brits

Header Image

Words:
Stephen Cousins

Commission to design statuette reflected Zaha’s love of music

Zaha Hadid was a virtuoso ‘starchitect’ but did she ever harbour ambitions to be an actual pop star? News that she was commissioned to design the statuette for the BRIT Awards 2017 certainly begs the question.

‘Zaha loved music, she followed pop the top 40, and listened to music from different cultures and countries, such as Arabic, French and English,’ says Maha Kutay, director at Zaha Hadid Architects, who led the trophy project after Hadid accepted and started work on the brief in January this year.

In an appearance on Desert Island Discs, on BBC Radio 4, shortly before she died, Hadid revealed her love for songs by artists including Drake, Bryan Ferry (whose These Foolish Things she’d sing for fun) The Beatles, Sam Smith and Adele. In 2015 she even partnered with Pharrell Williams to collaborate on a design for a pair of trainers.

The design for the trophy ditches the traditional Britannia statuette in favour of ZHA’s characteristic curves. Previous designers tasked with re-appropriating the piece, including British artists Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, only ever gave it a repaint.

A family of five separate statuettes will be produced by Zaha’s team as part of the concept development. Kutay comments: ‘The family of five idea is connected by a wave of transition, they change from one to the next to describe movement, as if the statuette moves or dances to music. This also reflects the ethos of the business, we don't really develop one idea for a project, we develop many.’ Just one trophy shape will be produced for the actual Awards ceremony.

A model mock-up was 3D printed to test out the proportions, how the piece feels in hand, and what it will look like on stage if somebody wins more than one. It has yet to be decided what material will be used to fabricate the final trophy.

No stranger to awards herself, Hadid would likely have relished seeing celebrities holding her statuette on the big night.

Indications are that her love of music helped take the edge off a demanding schedule of work and public engagements. When asked by Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young, what she does when she relaxes at home, the architect commented: ‘I don’t really relax, I sit down in front of the TV or play music.’

Latest

In an Olympic year and with a Commonwealth Games due to be staged in two years’ time, impress us with a bold, temporary sporting arena in Edinburgh or London for a chance to win a £2500 prize

Win up to £2500 in our design ideas competition

Guidance from Purcell stresses the need to use heritage-trained architects, spend time and effort on detailed design, and collaborate with council conservation officers

Purcell guidance advocates heritage-trained architects and collaboration with LPA conservation officers

Our role as architects encompasses much more than design alone, says Muyiwa Oki. Reassuring our clients is an essential part of the service

Reassuring our clients is an essential part of the service

Amin Taha’s Groupwork has thrown a light, nostalgic cloak over a central London office block in a playful upgrade and extension

Amin Taha’s playful upgrade and extension of a city block

Light industrial unit design in Sevenoaks, a daylighting contest for architecture students and a new home counties planning/design framework: these are some of the latest architecture contracts and competitions from across the industry

Latest: £2.6m commercial development, Kent