Hadid, Iraqi-born, was a major protagonist of architectural Deconstructivism, an imaginative and creative critique to the normative modernity of post-WWII design. Educated at the Architectural Association (AA) school in London, she soon excelled for her astonishing skills in space representation, which echoed the modes introduced by the Russian avant-garde. She began her phenomenal career in 1991 with the Vitra Fire Station building, which was soon transformed into an exhibition space. In 2002 she won the international competition for the globally acclaimed Guangzhou Opera House. Two years later she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, and a month before her sudden death in 2016, she became the first woman individually awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
For The Great Utopia, Hadid repurposed Wright’s spiraling atrium to tell a story that moved visitors seamlessly up the ramp. Interruptions, created with three-dimensional projecting obstacles and screens with posters, pushed visitors to the edge of the ramp, allowing vertiginous perspectives to be seen at the same time.
Seventy-nine drawings, mostly perspectival views of Hadid’s innovative exhibition design, remain among the most evocative traces of this important exhibition. The drawings, all on square-format paper, have been part of GRI Special Collections since 1995.