Internationally-renowned designer Francis Sultana has curated a commemorative salon to pay tribute to a personal friend of his, the incomparable architect Zaha Hadid, who passed away earlier this year. He tells Veronica Stivala what her design meant to him.

Lamellae cuff

Zaha Hadid always talked about there being 360 degrees, so why stick to one? Designer Francis Sultana speaks of the world renowned Iraqi architect Hadid, a personal friend of his, as one whose signature “is instantly recognisable”. Speaking to The Sunday Times of Malta, Sultana notes how “Hadid’s strength was the distinctly recognisable language of her work. It had a femininity yet strength, the layers of curves pushing the boundaries of architecture.”

Whether in a building, a table or a pair of shoes, Hadid’s style is quite uniquely hers. To pay tribute to the architect who left us on March 31, together with Zaha Hadid Architects and Zaha Hadid Design, Sultana curated a salon of the architect’s work that celebrates her private and public genius across all disciplines. The exhibition was held at Masterpiece in London from June 30 to July 6.

The salon at the annual Art, Antiques and Design Fair recognised her unique vision, from the cities in which we live, to the buildings within them as well as interiors and the people who inhabit them. It also revealed her love of fashion, which was often quite playful. Hadid once said: “Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.”

Vortexx ring

Sultana and Hadid were friends, brought together by their works and mutual friends. When Sultana’s mother passed way last year, Hadid and David Gill were the first people he saw after his return from Malta. “It’s at moments like this you realise who your close friends are and Hadid was very loyal to her nearest and dearest,” he says.

“She inspired many,” Sultana says, adding how all his creative friends inspire him. “It’s reciprocal, It’s great talking ideas and creating trends in any aspect of design,” he says.

Hadid gave us so much of her life for her work... she will be remembered in history for her great achievements

Hadid’s pioneering vision redefined architecture and design for the 21st century and captured imaginations across the globe. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1950, Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to London in 1972 to attend the Architectural Association School where she was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977.

Sultana will never forget the first Hadid creation he came across. “It was Dune Formations,” he recalls, a commission of a complete library and interior project that was to be shown at the Venice Art Biennale. “It was true to the title like sand dunes creating shelves, benches tables, so futuristic, so sculptural and so unmistakably Zaha,” he says.

The salon covered the life and career of Hadid through a series of sketches, paintings, models, magazines, catalogues and some of her most favoured objects, including jewellery and fashion pieces that she both designed and owned as well as furniture and accessories.

Most important for Sultana to bring across in this salon was “the woman behind the work”. He wanted to offer a glimpse of the young lady embarking on her career, to showing how she could create anything from a hand-bag to a pair of shows all showing her distinct signature.

Liquid glacial bowl

He talks about how she embraced fashion as she did most things, and reveals how he and his friends would “always wait to see what new evening coat she would put on. It was the main signature of her personal style. That, and the quantity of clutch bags she adored”.

The exhibition covered Hadid’s early career with her 1985 interior model for 24 Cathcart Road. This residence provided the backdrop for the first material display of Hadid’s ‘Suprematist geology’ and included furniture, which created a dynamic landscape of its own, rather than acting as a sculptural object in a neutral container. There were also magazines, catalogues and a drafting set from the same period. Photographs also accompanied these pieces documenting Hadid’s time at the Architectural Association.

Hadid founded Zaha Hadid Architects in 1979 and completed their first building, the Vitra Fire Station in Germany in 1993. Hadid taught at the Architectural Association School until 1987 and held numerous chairs and guest professorships at universities around the world, including Columbia, Harvard, Yale and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

‘Glace’ bangle

The exhibition also featured three large paintings by Hadid from 1989-1991 which included Homage to Verner Panton (1989) and his eponymous chair and two distinct visions of London’s urban planning in London 2066 (1991) and Blue and Green Scrapers and Leicester Square (1990). Twenty-nine sketches taken from Hadid’s sketch-book of 2001 sat alongside the artwork and a sketch of Edificio Campus in Barcelona is featured on a Soundwall that played an audio of Hadid.

The salon had great feedback, says Sultana, adding how “visitors loved seeing things about Hadid they were not aware of. It was just a small sample of an extraordinary life of creativity showing the woman who gave us so much of her life for her work and will always be remembered in history for her great achievements.”

Hadid’s outstanding contribution to the architectural profession has been acknowledged by the world’s most respected institutions, including the Forbes List of the World’s Most Powerful Women and the Japan Art Association presenting her with the Praemium Imperiale. Hadid was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004.

In 2010 and 2011, Hadid’s designs were awarded the Stirling Prize, one of architecture’s highest accolades, by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Hadid’s love of fashion was represented by some of her most renowned designs. Her Icone bag for Louis Vuitton was designed in 2006 as a reinterpretation of the iconic LV Bucket Bag. Hadid’s own ring, the Vortexx Ring designed in 2015 was also on show. The piece offered a dialogue in the pioneering fusion of aesthetics and the very latest digital design and manufacturing methods inspired by the studio’s Vortexx Chandelier. The ring consists of two spiralling stars blending into each other, with the upper and lower vortexes nesting comfortably between the fingers, securing the ring in place.

Other pieces on show included Nova Shoes, created in 2013 for United Nude and designs for Georg Jensen, including Lamellae Twisted Cuff and Lamellae Double Ring, at Baselworld this year.