Zibaldone 9

Zaha Hadid was quoted: “It is about no 90° corners. The diagonal was the beginning of all this. The diagonal created the idea of the explosion reforming space. That was an important discovery.” The “explosion reforming space” that Hadid refers to and her use of “no 90° corners” is manifest in what Hadid’s long time-collaborator, Patrik Schumacher calls “Parametricism.” Where Modernism was founded on the idea of space, Hadid believes Parametricism is a differentiation of fields. “Fields are full, as if filled with a fluid medium… we might think of liquids in motion, structured by radiating waves, laminal flows, and spiraling eddies” (Schumacher).

            In Hadid’s work, such as in her design of MAXXI in Rome, her utilization of the diagonal is demonstrated clearly. The building turns the corner in a fluid fashion. The turn is volumetric, and offers a sense of spatial continuity. From the exterior, the continuity is expressed positively, and vice versa on the interior. The way MAXXI turns the corner illustrates the idea of free flowing forms and the intention for the building to reinterpret the existing urban grid at its site. Instead of corners marking the boundary or end of a space such as in many examples of modern architecture, the diagonal corners of MAXXI imply a continuation of motion through Hadid’s differentiation of fields.