Two Crevasse Vases

The Liliane and David M. Stewart Program for Modern Design, gift of Dr. Michael Sze, 2008.28

Zaha Hadid, known for her extraordinary sculptural buildings, also designed useful, everyday objects. These vases are the result of her 2005 collaboration with the Italian manufacturer and retailer Alessi, which has been producing everyday objects for the home since 1921.

For Hadid, the design also had to reflect her architecture. The slight twist of the column and trapezoidal cross-section give the impression that these two vases have different shapes though they are identical and simply set at different angles. As suggested by the name Crevasse—which refers to a gaping crack in a glacier—the space between them is also part of the visual dynamic. These forms adhere to the major tenets of good design in their simplicity, functionality, and lack of decoration.