Total Fluidity: Studio Zaha Hadid, Projects 2000 - 2010 University of Applied Arts Vienna

"Total Fluidity" collects 10 years of academic design research conducted at the Zaha Hadid master-class at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Under the leadership of Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher the studio developed a distinct contribution to the emerging style of Parametricism. All elements of architecture become fluid, ready to engage with each other and with divers contexts leading to an overall intensification of relations. This style is architecture’s response to 21st Century network society. The radicality and consistency with which this style is being pursued across all scales and programmes results in an impressive body of work. Academic design research can go deeper and farther than professional work in probing the consequences of a radical design hypothesis. Within academia architects can be more experimental. They can afford to be more principled and more self-critical, avoiding pragmatic compromises. The creative work of the Zaha Hadid Vienna studio testifies to this.

Zaha Hadid consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Her work experiments with new spatial concepts intensifying existing urban landscapes in the pursuit of a visionary aesthetic that encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban scale through to products, interiors and furniture. Best known for her seminal built works (Vitra Fire Station, Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, BMW Central Building, Phaeno Science Center, and MAXXI: Italian National Museum of XXI Arts) her central concerns involve a simultaneous engagement in practice, teaching and research. Zaha studied architecture at the Architectural Association from 1972 and was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977. She became a partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at the AA until 1987. Hadid has held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois, School of Architecture, Chicago; guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg; the Knolton School of Architecture, Ohio and the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and Commander of the British Empire, 2002. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Patrik Schumacher has been a designer at Zaha Hadid Architects since 1988. He is a director and senior designer of the Practice as well as a co-author and project partner on a series of major projects like the MAXXI: National Centre of Contemporary Art and Architecture in Rome, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig and the Dubai Opera House. He is registered with the Architect’s Registration Board, and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Patrik studied architecture at the University of Stuttgart and at the Southbank University in London. He completed his architectural diploma and received his degree Dipl.Ing. from Stuttgart University in 1990. He also studied philosophy at Bonn University and London University. In 1999 he received his doctoral degree Dr.Phil. at the Institute for Cultural Sciences at the University of Klagenfurt. He has been teaching at various architectural schools in Britain, Continental Europe and the USA since 1992. He is a co-director of the Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Association School of Architecture since 1996. He has co-taught a series of post-graduate option studios with Zaha Hadid at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University and at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Currently Patrik is tenured Professor at Innsbruck University.