Zaha Hadid and Arab Motifs in Architecture: Deconstructing Tradition in the Digital Age Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), born in Baghdad, was often perceived in the Western context as an architect of a global, denationalized avant-garde. However, her work contains a complex and innovative dialogue with the heritage of Arab and Islamic culture. This dialogue was not a straightforward citation but a deep deconstruction and rethinking of spatial, geometric, and aesthetic principles of the East through the lens of parametricism and modern philosophy of form. Abandonment of literalism: not minarets and arches, but abstraction of principles Hadid intentionally avoided direct historical allusions. What interested her were not stylistic clichés, but fundamental ideas: The idea of infinity and depth. Contrasting the Western static, centered composition with the Islamic concept of an infinite pattern that extends beyond the visible. In her architecture, this is expressed through disappearing horizons, fluid forms, and the absence of clear boundaries between floor, wall, and ceiling. Space is perceived as an infinitely enduring field, not a series of enclosed rooms. Geometry and calligraphy. Arab calligraphy and ornament (gharigh, arabesque) are based on the transformation of the line, its dynamics, twisting, and intertwining. Hadid's works are architectural calligraphy in three dimensions. The line does not describe a contour, but becomes a force trajectory, organizing the entire space. Example: the Zaha Hadid Architects residential house project in Beirut (2019) with a facade resembling giant, motionless strokes. Light and shadow as a material. In traditional Arab architecture, mashrabiya (carved lattice) and complex play of light create a mystical, changing atmosphere. Hadid translates this principle to the level of complex geometry. In the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku (2012), light glides along smooth white surfaces, creating constantly changing shadows and a sense of weightles ... Read more