Italian furniture company Sawaya & Moroni unveiled Zaha Hadid‘s latest creation recently as part of Milan Design Week 2011. Her “Z.Chair” is a gorgeous calligraphic show-stopper that zigzags in space like a whimsical life drawing brought into the 3-dimensional world. One of the most important skills I learned in my life drawing classes when I was studying Architecture is how critical it is to think of the subject in three dimensions — using your mind’s eye, imagine your pencil is tracing lines around the figure’s body (imagine wrapping string around the model from head to toe) and translating that onto your paper. This same skill is an essential part of understanding architecture in plan, section, and elevation all at the same time: a very tricky trio of balls to juggle. But computers are helping us leap frog over top this challenge to a certain extent by allowing designers to come up with shapes and forms of such staggering complexity (and structural integrity) it’s almost as if a higher power is in control of the design. Zaha Hadid’s architectural and industrial designs (her shoes concepts are brilliant too) continue to break the rules, push the envelope, and create wonderfully elegant things of beauty that wouldn’t have been possible even a few short years ago.
SEE ALSO: Zaha Hadid’s Stunning Chinese Opera House Is Now Complete
SEE ALSO: Charlie Rose Interviews Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Renzo Piano
