When thinking of product design with a unique sense of perception and exceptional details, Architect Zaha Hadid and team pop into our minds from nowhere. The niche she has carved for herself in creating furniture, lighting, cutlery and jewellery into something no less than artifacts is worth all the applause. From the incredible manipulation of materials to form unimaginable pieces of art to her introspection into curved surfaces and articulated edges, the work portrays the impossible in its most ergonomic and functional configurations. The fluidity possessed by the designs brought her high range clients like B&B Italia, Z.CAR, Triflow Concepts, Lacoste, and opportunities to exhibit works at various notable spaces like the David Gill Gallery. The sculptural aesthetic of her designs makes her a product designer as good as an architect!
Let’s take a walk through some of their iconic masterpieces, hang in here!
1. HEW TRAY & GLASSWARE
Designed for the Zaha Hadid Collection of 2019, this has been a cutlery replicating delicate self-erosion with fragile opaque glass material. Including a wineglass, highball, carafe, tumbler, and a tray to hold them, this package is an explicit magical creation. It tends to join the visual and tactile commotions of the product by making its negative nooks and spaces seem positive.
2. RE/FORM CARPET COLLECTION
Designed for the Royal Thai team inspired by their motive and design principles, these carpets are a blend of turquoise, red, and green in abstract patterns. They are a set of 22 designs with four major concepts as in striated lines, ribbon-like intrusions, pixelated landscapes, and organic cellular patterns. Each one of them has the signature of the architect embedded that shows at certain positions when the light and shadow play its magic.
3. SWIRL BOWL
This incredible artwork signifying the vortex of liquid dynamic motion was launched as a part of the Zaha Hadid Collection 2019. It represents the axis line based on which a liquid or gel moves physically as seen when stirring a cup of tea or in a whirlpool as a boat takes a turn. The crystal glass makes the complex shape of it look minimal and simple.
4. CELL CANDLE STAND, PLATE AND BOWL
The Cell set of the Zaha Hadid Collection 2019 is notable due to the interesting candle holder designed similar to a reproducing cell, organic, and uncontrolled. The spread of the cell to various nuclei as in the reproduction of an amoeba is carved onto this piece in the mid air with long spines that make it stand. The plates, platters, and bowls are much simpler versions of the above, available in ceramic colours of classic black and white.
5. ART BORDERS WALLPAPER
Done in collaboration with Patrick Schumacher like many of her other works, these are a series of four wallpapers designed for the exhibition named ‘Art Borders’ in Germany. The artistic manifestations of the team would have been impossible without the technological innovations carried out to make this a reality.
6. BOW CHAIR
ZHA has always been on the process of experimentation and discovery of materials and techniques. Currently, they have been focussing on various chances that the 3D printing offers and this has been converted into modelling the Bow Chair. A culmination of structural inventions and pristine reforms lead to this piece that can adapt to any context with its concurring colour and pattern.
7. CLOUD KENNEL
This incredibly designed kennel was designed for an exhibition called BowWow in London that deals with Blue Cross for Pets in order to save and take care of pets that are abandoned each year. The right cause was well backed by famous designers including Zaha Hadid in creating community-based creative engagements to create awareness and interest in people towards animals, especially pets. This specific product was done using sustainable plywood placed with a stand from the ground through CNC milling.
8. CRYSTAL ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION
Designed for Lalique, a French-based fragrance enterprise, these products are a pretty watch to the eye with ergonomic efficiency. They are done in polished crystal satins of three different colours; midnight blue, clear and black. Be it the Visio, Manifesto or the very recent Fontana Bowl, these artefacts are beyond elegance.
9. AVILION TRIFLOW TAPS
Sculpting every single product has been Zaha Hadids’ motive. This design of a bathroom tap has no different story to tell, with a transparent material that shows the movement dynamics of water to the basin and from it. Its particular shape emphasizes the concept a little deeper in letting everything portrayed, not just a part of it.
10. GENESY LAMP
This marvel done for an Italian company specialized in lighting named Artemide is another feather in the teams’ cap. Created in glossy polyurethane material, the concept of emerging trees from natural beds with links at root and into a canopy of branches is converted into the fluid organic design of the Genesy lamps.
11. GLACE COLLECTION
In collaboration with Atelier Swarovski, this piece of jewelry including a necklace, cuffs, two rings, and a pendant is yet another incredible creation. It is meant to compliment moments with well-cut crystals and organic configurations.
12. LOOP IMMERSIVE SOUND LOUNGE
Created for the L-Acoustics, the flag-holding firm in the field of sound controls and premium audio manipulations, this lounge is an irregular circular space with an unrivalled audio experience applicable to home theatres or commercial film halls or art centers.
13. MALEA COFFEE TABLE
Conceptualizing abstract forms of seashell motifs, this table designed for Citco is combination of beige onyx and transparent acrylic. The former displays strength and stability while the latter inculcate depths and flexibility through light refractions and transference.
14. SILENE CUFF
This limited piece of ornament is designed for The House of Aziz and Walid Mouzannar with white gold and diamond finishing off in white gold, yellow gold, or black gold. Combining the passion of the enterprise towards traditional and rooted products along with the contemporary outlook of the ZHA team led to the making of this grand piece.
15. FIELD OF TOWERS
Designed for 2016 collection, this chess board and set of articles was inspired from the architectural background of the team, representing buildings in an urban fabric. This chess board is a piece of art than a just a game board, with transparent icons and well detailed proportions and scale.
