Movie: in this exclusive video, the late Zaha Hadid's long-standing business partner Patrik Schumacher reflects on meeting the architect for the first time as a student and the impact of her early paintings.
Painting by Zaha Hadid of her proposal for The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong
Schumacher met Hadid in 1988 at a symposium at the Tate gallery in London to coincide with the New York Museum of Modern Art's Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition.
With no built projects, Hadid was building a reputation as a radical architect through her artwork. The huge paintings of her competition entry for The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong were included in the show, alongside projects by the likes of Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind and Bernard Tschumi. Painting by Zaha Hadid of her proposal for The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong
Schumacher says that even amongst such esteemed company Hadid stood out.
"Her work was the most intense, intriguing and opened up the discipline to unexpected potentials of exploration," he says in the movie, which Dezeen filmed at the Architectural Association in London.
"I was intrigued by the frankness and openness of her presentation. She was quite genuine in respect to letting the audience into her work and the way she was working."
Painting by Zaha Hadid of her proposal for The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong
Schumacher was an architecture student at the time and was looking to join a practice to complete his qu...