Fluid spaces: in conversation with Kar-Hwa Ho, Zaha Hadid Architects

This article first appeared in Mix Interiors #225

Words: Harry McKinley

The London lobby of Zaha Hadid Architects is much as you might imagine: a near white void, punctuated by a rippling black sofa and a cluster of scale models. There’s a white table in there somewhere, polished and immaculate, disappearing into the walls and floor. On first impression it isn’t a space for this editor – rain sodden and carrying most of Clerkenwell’s pavement detritus underfoot. A few minutes after arrival, my thoughts hover less on the person I’m there to meet and more on the job I’ve created for the cleaners.

I needn’t have worried. After all, as Kar-Hwa Ho, the studio’s Head of Interior Architecture asserts, ZHA really isn’t about the stifling purity or austerity some might assume, but humanism; spaces and buildings designed with people in mind, presumably in all their messy, unpredictable, sometimes dripping reality.

Kar himself (who insists on doing everything on a first name basis) isn’t particularly starched, head-to-toe in navy; a comfortable knit with chinos. Originally from Singapore, he has a gentle, thoughtful air, with grey flecked hair and tasteful glasses. He knew ‘early days’ Hadid personally, having studied under her at the AA – then oblivious to the fact that, in later life, he’d work at the powerhouse practice that bears her name. Although starting out as student and teacher, the relationship between them was not a fleeting one and endured over the years. When Kar returned to Singapore for his mandatory military service, they kept in touch.