Earlier this morning, as we peregrinated about the internet in search of lovely little tidbits to perk up each others’ ears with, we found a delightful Guardian interview with Ms. Hadid. Illustrated with a shot of The Zaha smiling unusually docilely, flanked by her typically large-scale drawings, the interview asked all the questions people tend to ask of the Iraqi architect. Hannah Pool covered the London 2012 Aquatic Center’s building concept (“a wave”), its budget concerns (“contingencies”), Hadid’s relationship with The Bulldog (“no, not yet”), her seeming penchant for controversy as seen through her architecture (“it’s not familiar”), the intimidation factor (“there is nothing I can do about that”), the notoriety (“it’s fun”), designing a tap (“it’s just fun”), and the missing of Baghdad (“this river has flown here for thousands of years”).

Having once experienced the tremendous nervewrack that was a casual sit-down q&a with Zaha, we couldn’t help but hear her warmly gravelly voice in our shared ear as we read through the brusquely outlined answers, remember the friendliness with which she answered our questions, recall the peal of laughter that erupted at a mention of boarding school. So we were sort of feeling it for her.

And then, of course, enter reality. Building Design announced firm-wide redundancies (layoffs to we stateside louts). Official word is they are cutting assistant positions in an effort to, erm, “rebalance the composition of its staff.”

We’re all for the famed British reticence, but that kind of lingeringly confusing corporate-y language—we count a “continue,” an “explore,” and an “alternative” in the last sentence alone—just doesn’t suit The Zaha’s clear-spoken and punctuative style. Nothing in the way of numbers, so we turn to you. Anyone got the inside swoop? Tips(at)edificial(dot)com.

Question Time: Architect Zaha Hadid [The Guardian]
Zaha Hadid Architects to cut jobs [Building Design]