Icon Magazine June 2016 Retour à l'édition précédente

In our latest issue – out now – John Jervis argues that postmodernism has left London with a pretty turgid legacy, while Hugh Pearman looks back at the greatest hits (and misses) of the inimitable Zaha Hadid
In March, the architecture world lost a true original in Zaha Hadid. Spiky, opinionated and with occasional diva-ish tendencies, Hadid left some writers unable to separate her personality from her buildings. But it is her work on which she will ultimately be judged, so it seemed fair, in this issue, to appraise the successes and failures of her 30-year career.
We also combed our archive for snippets from our coverage. This magazine has been among Hadid’s fiercest critics. Some of this, I think, was down to timing: Icon launched at a moment when the sheen of the kind of globalised, dare I say iconic, architecture Hadid purveyed was beginning to fade, and adopted an appropriately provocative stance.

Nevertheless, our investigations yielded some gems. In an early issue, Hadid talked fondly of her student days in London, going clubbing and generally looking for mischief. By then, she was a bona fide starchitect – with typical foresight, Icon had already harnessed her pulling power, putting her on the cover of its third issue. The off-cuts from that photo shoot, one of which is above, have never been published and reveal the architect’s warm and playful side. She will be greatly missed.

While Hadid’s parametricism has slipped out of fashion, postmodernism has come roaring back. An unfortunate development, according to Icon’s John Jervis, who argues that the British strain of the movement, which found its spiritual home in London’s Square Mile, has left us with a pretty turgid legacy.

Time to rip it up and start again?