Zaha Hadid Announced As BRIT Awards 2017 Statue Designer

The influential architect accepted the brief before she died...

Zaha Hadid has been announced as the statue designer for next year's BRIT Awards.

The influential architect passed away suddenly earlier this year, but accepted the BRIT Awards commission shortly before she died.

Today (October 31st) would have been the Iraqi-born, British-bred designer's 66th birthday, and to coincide the BRITs have confirmed news of her commission.

The project was realised by by Maha Kutay, Director at Zaha Hadid Design, and Niamh Byrne (on behalf of The BRIT Awards).

BRITs chairman Jason Iley said: “The party was for her family, friends and many renowned architects. This was a really big night for her and she was still prepared to talk about The BRIT Award and she was really excited about it. A couple of weeks later, as a guest of Sony at The BRIT Awards, she enthused ‘I know exactly how I want to do it! I have a vision for it!’ Which was amazing as she was one of the most brilliant, forward thinking architects in the world.”

Speaking about the design Maha Kutay said: “Zaha was truly excited to be doing this. Her vision was, being an architect, to focus our efforts more on the 3D element, as the statue had previously been used as a canvas for artists to paint on for the last few years. Our design expresses Zaha’s unwavering belief in progress and optimism for the future and a break from the norm. The biggest challenge was to create something different within certain guidelines, yet achieving a result recognisable to the public. You have to respect the existing to create something new.”

The statues build into a 'family of five', with Kutay explaining: “the concept represents diversity, the family is connected by a wave of transition, they are different yet connected.”

BRIT Awards 2017 take place on February 22nd.

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