Philadelphia Museum of Art Readies Zaha Hadid Product Design Exhibition

Smooth Moves From left, Zaha Hadid’s Z-Car I, Seoul Table, and Lacoste boots (Photos courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, StageOne, and Lacoste)

Bring on the undulating footwear, swooping furniture, and fizzy, El Lissitzky-flavored sketches, because Zaha Hadid is coming to Philadelphia. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect and her fluid yet geometric product designs are the subject of an exhibition opening September 17 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion” will include her forays into furniture (she excels at seating that looks plucked from a Scandinavian airport of the future), jewelry (such as Swarovski crystal–encrusted necklaces and bracelets), footwear (strappy rubber wedges for Melissa and vaguely reptilian boots for Lacoste), and automobiles (a foam prototype of her three-wheeled “Z-car I” will be among the exhibition’s highlights). All of these biomorphic brand extensions will be displayed inside what the museum describes as an “all-encompassing environment” created by Hadid for the show. Meanwhile, later this fall, she will be honored with the Collab Design Excellence Award, bestowed annually by a collaboration of design professionals supporting the modern and contemporary design collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Past winners of the award include Alberto Alessi, Frank Gehry, Philippe Starck, and Marcel Wanders.

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