As far back as SSS1, I made a decision that most people around me never expected because it confused them in a way. It was not an outrageous decision anyway, but it was not just that type of decision someone at my age then would just decide to make with confidence without without a proper guideline, most especially in this country. I decided to study architecture. I was not pushed towards it. No one in my family, like, has ever studied it. None of my teachers back then even talked about it.
The desire just aroused in me at a young age that I can't even explain. I wanted to think outside the box, create things that were unusual, and make things and spaces that did not exist yet. I had already made this decision, and nothing changed it even though other things were not clear. Not only that, but I remember writing Jamb three times. I was offered admission to study other related courses by the school, but I told my parents that I didn't want another course.
After I began the journey in late 2017, I did one course, “History of Architecture,” where I was introduced to a lot of great architects, but one stood out for me among them because her works and designs were unusual. They were fascinating beyond my imagination. Something in me became quiet in a particular way, not something lousy, but the quiet of recognition. Because I got to know about an Irish lady who has built her life and career on designs that structural engineers said that those buildings cannot be built.
The magnificent curved wall, the almost impossible geometrics, the outstanding and lively concepts that almost look like they were almost defying the laws of gravity and the ground that they were erected on. And one of her last works was the FIFA Al Janoub Stadium that was used during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This stadium structure was so unique because she got the concept from a female genital organ.
One of the things I so much admire about this woman is that she always refuses to design like all other architects; she has her own way of designing, and I think this was one of the reasons why she won the Pritzker Prize in 2004. The first woman to ever receive it in history.
What will continue to move me forever about this woman was not even the award, but how she dedicated herself to being quietly dismissed. A lot of people called her designs imperfect. Some of her clients canceled their work with her. Some of her projects were being delayed for years. But she never gave up because she kept on coming up with masterpieces, the same radical designs from her mind to reality, even when contracts were not coming in. She never let go of her vision because she treated and handled those visions so well before the world finally agreed with her.
And that is one of the things I have been applying to my life and story. Because Zaha Hadid did not shrink herself, her designs, innovations, and original instinct to fit what.the people around wanted. So, I'm not ready to do that just because I want to accept me. Different, unique, unconventional, modern, bold, slightly uneasy to explain, that has always been the version of architecture I have dreamed of. And that version of architecture deserves to be kept safe even now that easier thing have come in that would be to make peace with ordinary and safe.
From all that I know about her, she never made peace with ordinary, and that is why the skyline of four continent are different because of that one decision she made.
Thank you for reading.
Images created by Gemini AI