Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe

JournalDesign

Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe

Deliciously warped Mobile Art Pavilion finds its permanent home...

Commissioned by Karl Lagerfeld in 2007, Chanel’s Mobile Art Pavilion – designed by Iraqi starchitect, Zaha Hadid – toured the world with a series of fashion/art exhibitions, wowing its adoring public with the 2004 Pritzker Prize laureate’s trademark futurist design. Now in its permanent home at Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe – the French fashion giant donated it earlier this year – the pavilion has opened with a fitting tribute to its inspirational designer, an engaging exhibition (running until October 30th 2011) that explores a series of research agendas conducted by Zaha Hadid Architects in recent years.

As with the majority of Hadid’s work, the exhibition is high on brain-twisting concepts and, dare we say it? Low on substance – the architect’s sublime visions are rarely realised in the real world. Nonetheless, even the most casual admirer of architecture should now be counting this breathtaking structure as a new Parisian ‘must-see’.

Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe