In an exclusive interview, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas tells Dezeen about his longstanding friendship with Zaha Hadid and hits out at the West's architecture press for acting as a self-appointed Amnesty International towards her projects in Eastern countries (+ transcript).
Koolhaas spoke to Dezeen the day after news broke of Hadid's unexpected death at the age of 65.
Koolhaas, 71, described Hadid as a "combination of beauty and strength" and said she was "incredibly generous and incredibly funny".
"She was really enormous fun," he said. "Obviously not always, but that is the reason that so many people are deeply upset and were deeply in love with her for the contribution, in terms of pleasure, that she made to all of our lives." "She was basically family," he added.

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The two became friends after meeting at London's Architectural Association school in the 1970s, and remained close despite often competing for the same jobs as they became increasingly successful ? Koolhaas with his Rotterdam firm OMA and Hadid with her own London-based company, founded in 1979.
"She was somebody with a rare kind of courage," he said. "It was not constructed courage but an inevitable courage, she was just made that way. It was an almost physical thing."
"That was very important, because at the time w...