Recognised as one of the most innovative architects of her generation, Zaha Hadid was recently awarded the highly prestigious international Pritzker Prize for Architecture. The first woman architect to win the award she joins many architectural luminaries including, most recently, Jorn Utzon and Glenn Murcutt. Iraqi-born but English-based, Hadid has dominated the vanguard of contemporary architecture for over a decade, creating a new architectural language that has extended the boundaries of both design and building technology. So far in advance of its time has much of Hadid's work been that many of her radical, abstract concepts are only now capable of being constructed.

Hadid's 'Moraine' sofa was commissioned by the renowned Italian company Sawaya & Moroni and gives three-dimensional domestic scale to her abstract architectural forms. Conceived originally as part of a suite of furniture inspired by glacial formations, the 'Moraine' breaks new ground in its radical curvilinear asymmetrical form, a piece of furniture that is both sculpture and seating, abstract and functional. The sofa's moulded, free-form shape also gives physical expression to the digital design technology that has played, and will continue to play, a seminal role in Hadid's highly creative design process. Examples of the sofa are held in corporate, private and institutional collections throughout the word including die Neue Pinakothek Museum, Munich and the Donna Karan headquarters in New York.

Sofa and cover, 'Moraine', polyurethane foam/ leather/ canvas, designed by Zaha Hadid, England, 2000, made by Sawaya & Moroni, Italy, 2004

Sofa of polyurethane foam in an asymmetrical, free-form shape of rectangular configuration and covered in red 'Fantasy Leather', a special hide produced by Sawaya & Moroni to create a 'pony skin' like effect.

Protective canvas cover for sofa which has been custom made to fit the free-form shape of rectangular configuration. Cover is secured around the base of the sofa with tabs and press studs.

The design of the sofa was commissioned from London-based architect Zaha Hadid by the Italian manufacturers Sawaya & Moroni SpA.

Purchased with the assistance of Sawaya & Moroni,

See part records for details

2005/180/1

2000