Architect Zaha Hadid Designs Wild, Innovative, Limited Edition Nova Shoes For United Nude.

Pritker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid teamed up with Rem d Koolhaas of United Nude to create Nova, a $2,000 limited edition haute couture shoe available in Black, Silver or Rose Chromed Vinyl and Carbon Fibre.



Zaha Hadid and UN’s Creative director Rem d Koolhaas have been talking about shoes since they first met years ago. Hadid, an architect with a passion for shoes, and Rem D, the original shoe architect, agreed to collaborate on the design of a shoe with no pre-conceptions and ignore all the rules to create an entirely new form of shoe.


above: Zaha Hadid at the launch of the shoe at L'eclaireur, Paris

The result is quintessentially Hadid. The revolutionary design of the NOVA shoe combines innovative materialization and ergonomic considerations with the dynamism of Hadid’s unmistakable architectural language to convey an inherent sense of movement; revealing the experimentation and invention of Hadid’s process through every stage of design and construction.

The NOVA Shoe in Black Chromed Vinyl and Carbon Fiber:






United nude’s advanced shoe engineering and hadid’s remarkable design have combined in a most revolutionary shoe, for which an entirely new way of shoe making was invented. Techniques such as injection- and rotation molding, as well as hand-molded methods, such as vacuum casting, were combined.




In fact, the NOVA is among the first shoes in history to employ rotation molding, which is the only molding technique that allows for such a smooth and seamless result.



above: The Nova Shoe launch at L'eclaireur, Paris

The upper of the shoe combines metallic chromed vinyl rubber and is lined with the highest quality Italian kid nappa leathers. The hidden platform and heel are composed of fiberglass and the outsole is made of rubber.

The NOVA Shoe in Rose Gold Chromed Vinyl and Carbon Fiber:






“United Nude’s collections are provocative yet sensual. Rem D Koolhaas’ unrelenting experimentation at the cutting edge of fashion never fails to capture our imagination.” explains Hadid. “I have always appreciated those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions. Our collaboration with United Nude reinterprets the classic shoe typology; pushing the boundaries of what is possible without compromising integrity.”

The NOVA design incorporates intricate striations juxtaposed with dramatic realignments, establishing a direct formal relationship with the shoe’s primary structure and expressing the dynamic forces applied by every step of the wearer.

The NOVA Shoe in Silver Chromed Vinyl and Carbon Fiber:






Guided by her 30 years of experience working with complex structural principles on all scale levels, Hadid has developed an innovative cantilevered system that allows the staggering 16cm (6.25 in) heel to appear completely unsupported.

The rhythmic, articulated transformation of the shoe’s composition encapsulates the seamless integration of materials, inventive engineering and highest standards of comfort. As Hadid’s most recent expression of this symbiotic association, the NOVA shoe design transcends the disciplines of fashion and architecture.

The making of the shoe:




“Zaha consistently reinvents the program with her own ideas and interpretations. Her visionary creations are often unexpected, yet reinforce their origins,” says Koolhaas. “I could not resist the challenge to work with Zaha. We gave ourselves the greatest degree of experimentation and used the latest digital design and manufacturing technologies to create one of the most innovative shoes ever produced.”



Credits:
Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Design Team: Maren Klasing, Maha Kutay, Woody Yao

The shoe, in sizes 35 to 40, will come as numbered limited editions of 100 per color and is available only at very select stores such as L’eclaireur in Paris and both the Zaha Hadid design and United Nude webshops.

DWR Kibbitzes About KoolHaas

THE CHARACTER OF COLOR


above: Dutch Architect Rem Koolhaas

Architect Rem Koolhaas turned up in San Francisco last month and gave a presentation to a packed house composed mostly of students at the San Francisco Art Institute. I was lucky enough to get in and find a seat on the floor in front of the first row. Sitting quite close to him, I was almost as transfixed by his body movements, mannerisms and words as I was by his slideshow. Rem Koolhaas cuts a unique profile – skinny, big eared, tall and hunched over the podium, he is equal parts intensity, intellect and designer machismo dressed in black, like a stalking heron ready to strike. He has a great sense of humor as well.



At his best, it was like listening to Dylan Thomas with an almost poetic flurry of words and images held together by a global world view and cynicism about man's intentions and the effects of modernism. At his worst, well there was no worst. It was one of the most entertaining and provocative design presentations I have ever attended. If you get the chance to hear Koolhaas speak, don't pass it up.

Koolhaas ripped through 134 slides that varied from frustrated clients' emails to global maps of his own design, hand drawn esoteric charts to photos of urban landscapes taken from helicopters and more. Click here for examples. He is a master presenter, a skill he must maintain as a rock star architect having to compete for major projects with the other marquee names. "I am always in competition with ten of my best friends," says Koolhaas, "and resort to unusual tactics to get the commission. It is very legitimate to question my motives." Koolhaas admits he is complicit in the "obscene extravagance" of "starchitecture" and sees no end in sight. But he identifies the evil forces and takes shots at them and their buildings (and at himself) in words and images. The text below is just one example of the slides he presented:

"The Enemy: Suits, with mustaches and receding hairlines with suspect waistlines huddled in a collective pose of preemptive servility, architects from a city that was put on the map by a single outrageous building when it was nothing – grown-up preemies of the Bilbao effect – they peddle their soulless wares with shameless calculation – Anglo termites of pragmatism – or tell reassuring fairy tales like the 'Skyscraper as Citizen' as if to four year olds."


above: the new Casa da Musica by Dutch superstar architect Rem Koolhaas

Few of Koolhaas' own buildings were included in his presentation and he appears to have little interest in talking about himself. Instead, he prefers to pounce on political, economic and global ideas that he then uses to frame his largely conceptual work. Decrying Dubai as a bad theme park for architecture, Koolhaas used elegant graphic slides to show how architecture has followed the fortunes of oil and the stock market in a new but "poisonous" silk route of trade across Europe. The yen, the euro and the dollar are held up as symbols of support and corruption, made elegant through his barrage of graphics and language. Less is not more with Koolhaas. He revels in complexity while simultaneously showing examples of new works that he designed with generic intent.


Above: the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, designed by Koolhaas

There are not many people who can be self-effacing and arrogant in the same breath, but this maybe Koolhaas' genius. It certainly is his character. He checked his watch perpetually throughout his presentation as he had to make a flight that night. But he slowed down after his talk and listened and responded to audience questions in the style of the best teacher, with spontaneous responses that made every question seem more insightful than it was. He is at his best in this role, the ideas guy, which makes it fitting that he also teaches at Harvard.


above: Koolhaas' Seattle Public Library


I wrote a piece on his Seattle Public Library recently click here to read it . If you get the chance to visit this facility, it is a phenomenon and is in keeping with the spirit of the man himself, though it was designed with significant input from the community. Before seeing the library, I was familiar with Koolhaas' work for Prada in New York and the Guggenheim in Las Vegas, but it was the SPL that made me understand how it was that Koolhaas earned the 2000 Pritzker Architecture Prize .


above: Rem Koolhaas' Soho PRADA store

Koolhaas' Art Institute presentation was punctuated with bold graphic images and the seemingly intentional use of color to bring out ideas. His "barcode" concept for a European Community flag is an excellent example in the way it uses country colors, fused in bars, to create unity in disparity. How much more provocative and insightful this is when compared with the flag that was chosen, with its ring of stars that suffers in anonymity. Color is not a tool used frequently in modernism where industrial materials like glass, metal and plastic are the norm, and is more often associated with decoration and the covering up of surfaces. It takes a special character to make color work in modernism. Koolhaas is a special character.


above: Koolhaas' proposed new European Community Flag

Rob Forbes
Founder DWR