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‘Black Panther’ production designer inspired by the work of Zaha Hadid

Hannah Beachler explained to Fast Company magazine about being considered as the movie’s production designer: “I remember when my agent was like, ‘go and talk to them and present’ and I said, ‘am I gonna get the script?’ Beachler continues. “They’re like ‘no, you don’t get any information.’ That’s when I started sweating, ‘Oh lord, what am I gonna do? Then I remembered years ago when I first started noticing Zaha Hadid. I’d always loved her work,” says Beachler. “She was the first person who popped into my head.”

It wasn’t just Hadid’s modernist curves, though, that seem to defy physics and express. It was the way she architected interiors, too. “Her buildings are all of large scale, but, here’s the thing: When you walk into them, you have this feeling of intimacy. Her buildings are far and away the biggest thing I’ve been in. They are just sprawling and ginormous, but, because of the curves, and the voluptuous nature of her designs, you have this intimate experience,” Beachler says. “And it’s the juxtaposition of these two scales you think will never happen together.”

This approach would win her the job–and later, she’d pay homage to Hadid herself by making her own pilgrimage to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza  in Seoul. “After I had gotten the job, I walked into the building, and knew I was a mess. I’m in tears, I’m crying at this point because Zaha had passed away that summer before,” Beachler says. “The world had just lost a genius.”

Photo Dongdaemun Design Plaza by Virgile Simon Bertrand

Fast Company Magazine