Since we opened our doors in 2001 our showroom has displayed an in depth collection of door handles and fittings from some of the world’s most recognised Architects. Here we look more closely at the works of Zaha Hadid, the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 as well as the UK’s most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize in both 2010 and 2011.

Known as the Queen of the curve, Dame Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) was an Iraqi-British Architect well known for constantly pushing the boundaries of architecture and design. Her major works include the aquatic centre for the London 2012 Olympics, the MAXXI Museum in Rome and the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Azerbaijan. Her work experimented with new spacial concepts and the urban landscape with a pursuit of a visionary aesthetic that encompassed all fields of design. Her work ranged from urban scale to products, interiors and furniture.

Zaha Hadid was approached by Fusital, who have commissioned many of the world’s leading architects to design lever handles for their collection, and her collaboration with Woody Yao certainly did not disappoint. The design took several years of tweaking and fine-tuning as the many facets and angled faces of the form were given the same attention and consideration as one of her signature buildings.

“The idea is not to have any 90-degree angles. In the beginning, there was the diagonal. The diagonal comes from the idea of the explosion which ‘re-forms’ the space. This was an important discovery.”

In fact the design of the door handle shows similarities to the architecture of the Vitra Fire Station in Weil-am-Rhein which is thought to be the project that helped launch her architectural career, a radical design made of raw concrete and glass and composed of sharp diagonal forms colliding together in the centre. Also the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, which houses the Glasgow Museum of Transport has a resemblance boasting a roofline of peaks and angles and was described by Hadid as “folds in movement”. Each project thought provoking it its construction and this element of intrigue is no different with the door handles, although a miniature version in comparison.

Each handle is made in Italy, available in a wide choice of finishes and can be seen in the Hotel Puerta America in Madrid and throughout the luxury residences Hadid designed at One Thousand Museum in Miami. So if you would like to own a small piece created by arguably one of the most recognised architects of our time click here to view or please get in touch or call in to see this sculptural piece of door furniture in our showroom.