Zaha Hadid Foundation on their Latest Open Exhibition; Zaha’s Moonsoon: An Interior in Japan

The ever-inspiring, first woman Pritzker Prize laureate, Zaha Hadid’s design goes beyond conventional angles challenging spatial perceptions and it is not news to us. The volume of her work speaks for itself. 

Hadid transgresses boundaries, pushing the very limits of architectural possibility. Her body of work dares to challenge the very fabric of reality. With each structure she manifests, Hadid crafts a portal to another dimension, where art and architecture fuse into a force of aesthetic revolution. 

Hadid envisioned and delved into building ZHF (Zaha Hadid Foundation) in 2013. Shortly after in 2016, she passed away leaving behind a remarkable legacy of groundbreaking design and inspiring creativity. In 2022, the ZHF was launched. ZHF is an inspiring realm of artistic exploration and innovation. It serves as a platform for nurturing emerging talents and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Additionally, it embraces a future where art, design, and technology converge harmoniously. 

Peek into the conversation with Johan Durell, Exhibitions Officer and the Curator of Zaha’s Moonsoon. Their 2nd Exhibition under the organisation is open till 22nd July this year. 

RH. The whole idea of ZHF Exhibitions not only reshapes but sparks design conversations. Making Hadid’s designs public, opens immense avenues for young designers and art enthusiasts. 

So Johan, what does ZHF aim to do in the coming years? If you can brief a bit about the previous exhibition. 

JD. We hosted one exhibition prior to Zaha’s Monsoon, which was curated by MA students at Courtauld. This show looked at the potential of London as a site for built and unbuilt projects. 

Moving forward, however, I think of Zaha Hadid Foundation’s exhibition programme as resting on three pillars. 

• The first one is about the legacy of Zaha Hadid, her life, and the work of her Office. These exhibitions are about developing and sharing knowledge about her practice and our collections. 
• A second strand of curatorial themes we are hoping to explore circles around the subjects and contexts which informed Zaha’s thinking and practice. These exhibitions could be related to the disciplines of modern architecture, art, design, and fashion, as well as cultural heritage and the broader history and context of twentieth and twentieth-first-century architecture and planning.
• A third theme is really about values, and partaking in contemporary debates and discourses of importance today. These exhibitions are about subjects and themes which reflect the mission and values of the foundation, whether related to pedagogy, contemporary practice, or artistic research. More broadly, these subjects may include areas of artistic research on architectural practice, history, and theory, and issues around migration, hybridity, and diversity. 

RH. There are a lot of interpretations drawn online regarding the project Monsoon similar to any art piece that is exposed to the viewer’s perception. Hadid has flawlessly achieved her vision to reality and taken the Japanese philosophies to her advantage. Given that international recognition in the year was more of an achievement itself. There must be hurdles in the process too. Moonsoon being the first interior project for Hadid, what were the brief stages of conception to execution for this project in that year?

JD. Moonsoon was commissioned in 1989 and completed in 1990, and was Zaha’s first completed major interior project, and first project to be completed outside of the UK. Prior to this, however, the practice had completed a domestic interior in London, on 24 Cathcart Road in 1986. This interior was only in situ for about a year before the client returned the furniture to Zaha. Some of the furniture lived in her flat, which is where Massimo Morozzi, a former member of the Archizoom Group and the creative director of Italian high-end furniture maker Edra, saw them. He commissioned Zaha to develop the Wave and Whoosh sofas from Cathcart Road for serial production. These, as well as the third sofa, was launched at the 1988 Salone Mobile in Milan. The same year, Zaha participated in the seminal Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition at MoMA, with her Hong Kong Peak project from 1983. This unbuilt project really cemented her reputation as an avant-garde architect. In the late 1980s, Zaha had also been commissioned for two unrealised office buildings in Tokyo, Azabu-Jyuban (1987), and Tomigaya (1986). It is on the back of all these projects that Moonsoon gets commissioned. 

The design historical context for the Japanese projects is the Bubble Economy. The term is used to describe an economic boom period in Japan in the later 1980s, which resulted in a good many design commissions for international architects, many of which were lavish, experimental projects. It also boosted fashion and lifestyle industries and an image of a ‘cool’ Japan around the world. The commissioner of Moonsoon was Jasmac, who had also been involved in commissioning works by Nigel Coates and Aldo Rossi. 

The brief was to create a trendy restaurant and bar interior, spreading over two floors in an existing postmodern building. The expected clientele of Moonsoon was chic, rich, and urban. For the design concept, Zaha Hadid Architects were inspired by the seasonal festivals of fire and ice in Sapporo, as well as a range of references, many of which relates to the central swirling shape, which connects the two floors of Moonsoon. In the exhibition, we wanted to give a sense of the design process of that vortex. We worked with graphic designer Marwan Kaabour to create a video that takes the audience from initial drawings to the final build. The idea for the swirl started off as scribble, a stylised version of the Arabic letter for H in Zaha, and evolved through references to tagliatelle and orange peel, into more advanced sketches, technical drawings, and the final build. The furniture and interior designs are also translations of the layering and whooshing, which we see in the architectural practice’s paintings from the time. Moonsoon is important because it is the first time that we get to see what an actual Zaha building might look like. By the 1990s, the Japanese economic boom was in decline and a high-end restaurant like Moonsoon struggled to stay in business. It was closed around 1994.

RH. Is there a particular process that has been followed while selecting the projects on display at the ZHF? What would you say is the criteria that influence the curation of these avant-garde projects? 

J.D. Each exhibition will have its own objectives and themes informing the curatorial narrative and object selection. This exhibition is really a case study of one key project. We selected Moonsoon as it has previously been understudied. The design strategies employed in Moonsoon derive from earlier conceptual architectural projects – for example, the use of abstract paintings to understand the possibilities of a site or programme – which were here translated into a built form. In a way, this project is a blueprint for later buildings. We wanted to show several aspects of this project – its process, presentation, products, and perception.

In terms of object selection, the starting point was a presentation briefcase in Perspex. 

RH. Which would you say from your perspective are Hadid’s few best International works which reflect the sense of strong connections with contextual philosophies such as Monsoon?

JD. There are many to choose from. Her first completed project, the Vitra Fire Station uses layering, warped and oblique shapes, and gravity-defying solutions as its design strategies. There are parallels to the Moonsoon interior if you look at how the restaurant room dividers and tables are shaped, and the use of almost shard-like lighting. If we look at seating landscapes from Moonsoon, they clearly bear a relationship to later projects such as the Z-scape furniture and Iceberg sofa.

RH. Share with us more insights on Zaha Hadid Foundation and its upcoming avenues. 

J.D. In the autumn, we will launch ZHF Commissions. This commission offers emerging international artists, designers, and architects an opportunity to undertake research leading to new work. This work will be presented in the form of an exhibition in our gallery space at Bowling Green Lane. In its initial phase, 2023-25, the principles are: 

To present artists whose work relates to the concept of migration in architecture and the built environment, including the movement of people, technologies, styles, ideas, and capital across different cultures, nations, and periods of history.

To present artists whose work relates to the concepts of interdisciplinarity in art, architecture, and design, including disciplines such as the sciences, humanities, and engineering.

To support artists from diverse and intercultural backgrounds who are currently underrepresented in traditional institutions.

Information on the exhibition and how to attend it.

Dates: 20 April – 22 July 2023

Opening hours: Thursday to Saturday, 12:00-18:00

Free admission 

Instagram: @zahahadidfoundation