Ergian’s day at Zaha Hadid office
by Ergian Alberg

In spite of four years of intense experience with
the "omnipresent" Dutch architects, moving to
London’s Zaha Hadid office has been rather traumatic.
In tiny Holland you had so much working space
that you felt almost guilty when you did not take
complete advantage of it, here space is like gold
dust, and there is never enough. Of course, the real
space is your PC’s desktop, and since I become a
computer “freak” (and here you have to be one)
I grudgingly had to accept this reduction of “vital”
space.

The office which I would better define as a laboratory,
a laboratory of architectonic experimentation with a
lot of challenging projects, is located in a central
area, a few metres from Ex-Mouth Market and
Farringdon tube station. For many years this area
has been full of Italians; in fact you will find a whole
Italian community here, the Italian church and
Terroni, one of the best Italian groceries in London.
The office occupies the premises of an old school
(a typical brick building) with the characteristic
separate entrances for boys and girls. The office is
divided into two parts (even if the separation is not
that clear; some teams are still working on the
first floor); the “administrative” part on the first
floor and the “creative” part on the ground floor;
both with high ceilings, the only meeting – room is
on the first floor after the fast growth of the office
reduced the common spaces.
Today is a very beautiful day, the sun filters through
the big window of the living-room and, while I make
my usual breakfast of milk, corn flakes, toasted bread
and marmalade, looking out at our lovely private
garden (I share the flat with Gwyn, well read English
journalist who works for the The Guardian, coincidentally
a few meters from my office) for a moment, though
it is nearly 10:00 a.m., I feel like I am on vacation.
But the illusion is short.
I hurry in order to get out, though I still walk through
Clissold park before catching the bus. After about
twenty minutes, a bit sleeping and a bit reading some
news, it is time to get off. A short trip to the
supermarket and then, crossing a small park I arrive
in front of the office where, with the magnetic
swipecard, I get to the courtyard into the work.
At 10:30 a.m. some people still have to arrive.
There is some flexibility, above all, when we work
over night to hit deadlines.
Steve, an Australian architect educated at the
Architectural Association of London, is always there,
any time. Lack of sleep is visible on his face.
To tell the truth, we are all quite tired, but fortunately
the dead-line is tomorrow.
We are working on the BBC Music Centre in London (1st
phase), a rather important competition for the office
(Zaha has not yet built in England, probably because
they are still too conservative). The 3D model is done
(hard to forget that night!) and we are waiting for
the STL model in arrival between today and tomorrow.
The diagrams are completed; the plans, elevations and
sections have to be finalized and our consultants have
already delivered their consistent part of work.
Lately I am organizing, among the other things, the
last four A0 panels with the exploded section and three
external views.
After few hours work, the time for lunch approaches
and, as usual, we go to the park for a little breathe
(1:30 p.m.). Lying on the grass (the season still allows
it) we try not to think what is waiting for us.
Relaxing for an hour, I “sacrifice” my typical Italian
lunch for a sandwich and a banana, and I grant
myself one babyfoot match at Cafè Kick (a small bar
attended by fans and otherwise of table football) in
order to unload the tension. Then, back to work.
The afternoon passes rather quickly and towards
seven o’clock some colleagues start to leave; at
eight o’clock we remain “alone” with our delivery
(due to the deadline tonight the team is larger,
almost double).
These are the best moments, the office seems
empty, less noise, less chaos. We can concentrate
and above all we cannot make mistakes, from now
time will be tyrannous. Supper is out of question,
just a few supplies from the supermarket for the
long night: vitamins, pure orange juice, chocolate
and milk (9:30 p.m.).
We start to “rush”, we are all nervous, everything
must be calibrated, we must finish the final report,
the Power Point presentation and the panels; the
night will be long but music and our insane complicity
will hold us company. Ma, a Chinese architect
seated next to me, is waiting for some of my work.
I have to decide on materials, lights and atmosphere
for the animations for which he will be responsible.
He is in a hurry, he is worried, will the time be enough?
(He knows already that he will use all the available
computers using a network rendering option), even
if we have already set much of the job and, shortly,
exclaims (as usual)"It' s OK!?It' s OK!". He thinks I
am too meticulous and I am too careful about the
details in this phase. For him, this is time to rush
(1:00 a.m.).
Patrik Schumacher, director of the office (skilful arm
of Zaha), checks all goes for the best. Nothing that
does not have his approval leave the office. There
are still few problems with the Music centre double
skin, Patrik is not satisfied and he asks for some
substantial changes in the main shape. Suddenly we
are stopped, but we cannot lose a minute. Patrick
wants to know who is responsible for those mistakes
but this is not the problem, the problem now is who
solves them and how. We decide to resume the
previous version of the model and to only bring in
some of the necessary changes (6:00 a.m.).
And when the time is about to run out, as usual,
things begin to square, to work, almost like magic.
The night passes fast and without noticing it we
see the first light of dawn and the first arrivals.
Graham, office manager, is among the first to arrive
and, kind as always, he has brought us fresh
croissants and coffee. He is also following the
project from the beginning and checking all the
phases; he cames up to me, as charming as ever,
but I know He wants to ask me how the panels are
doing and when the courier can pass in order to get
them. Since the last modifications I have begun rather
late; there is an unforeseen delay, and I cannot
give him an approximate time when I will end. He is
visibly tense, but I cannot say anything to calm him
down, I just need time that we do not have anymore,
that’s all. My obsession for quality does not allow me
to end on time. We must give up one panel
(the three-dimensional model still has unresolved
parts) or hope to be able to print it later; everyone
supports my idea. The courier is on his way and the
work is nearly finished, he will come again later for
the last panel (12:00 a.m.).
As often happens at the end of all the projects,
looking and checking it more carefully, the errors,
the mistakes, the missing parts became visible.
Anger and dissatisfaction prompts me into reflection,
doubt, heavy doubt; but this is another story…

Now it is time for a long rest (15:00 p.m.).
Utterly deserved.

Italian-to-English translation
Ergian Alberg