BOOK:The Complete Zaha Hadid, Thames & Hudson Publications

Zaha Hadid is one of the most innovative and celebrated architects working in the world today. Born in Iraq, based in London and a recipient of the Pritzker prize, Hadid has over the past thirty years transformed our experience of space and architecture. This comprehensive volume of over 190 projects – from the earliest experimentations to product design, from follies to large-scale built works and urban plans – is testimony to the depth, range and excitement of her vision. “The Complete Zaha Hadid” by Thames & Hudson Publications is clearly intended as the budget option for those not able to afford “Zaha Hadid: The Complete Works”. The book is written by Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum. This is a complete monograph of Hadid’s works, from her early, unbuilt projects and ideas from her student years to her very latest projects around the world, including the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Guangzhou Opera House in China, and the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum in Michigan, USA., it also includes her furniture, product and exhibition designs. But it is just catalog of her work with a brief description and few photos by project: about a page each. There are not many technical drawings so you only have some idea of what the design is about.  It may be useful as a glossary, but it will leave frustrated those readers wanting to gain deeper insight into the work of Zaha Hadid.-Efi Michalarou