Rating: 
Summary: excellent overview with great imagery
Review: This book allows for either a new comer or seasoned architect to truly begin to understand the intentions of a great architect. The book remarkably shows an in depth look into the process, motivation and presentational work of one of architectures few succesful female architects. The quality of images is very good and thorough. The one area where this book doesn't completely fulfill is built work. The drawings and gestural models are elegant and spatial but can't fully encompass the feeling of the true structure. A more indepth look at actual built spaces would make this book unable to pass up. Despite this flaw, this book is definately one every post-modern architecture fan should add to his/her library.
Rating:
Summary: Critical Architecture
Review: This book is not for someone looking for structural systems, mechanical systems, or simply physical form. In other words, this book is not going to appeal to people who believe architecture is simply about building any kind of building. Zaha is trying to show us that architecture is so much more because it affects us in so many unimaginable ways. Her book and her work must be looked at carefully and consciously. Her work is about presenting critical ideas and opinions on constructions and the way we live. Take nothing for granted. We are not all contractors, developers, or money-hungry architects.
Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional!
Review: This is a fantastic compilation of Hadid's work. It's more comprehensive than the El Croquis, although there is no long interview. There is adequate text for each project, however. If you like her work, or are interested in contemporary architecture, I highly recommend it. It's fairly inexpensive and catalogues her exceptional work.
Rating: 
Summary: Radical architecture and aesthetics
Review: While the other reviewers have made valid arguments (vis a vis the infeasibility of Ms. Hadid's works and the lack of conventional diagrams), if one comes to this book from a context other than pragmatic architecture, then this book is a joy. For myself, I approached this book through an appreciation of Sadar Vuga, the Designer's Republic, and Mike Young (of designgraphik fame). From this context, 'Buildings and Projects' is a wonderful collection of works from a visionary and graphically talented designer-artist.
Rating:
Summary: it is a very good conceptual idea
Review: With her most recent commission, Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, architect Zaha Hadid becomes the first woman ever to design an American museum. This long awaited frist monograph on one of the world's most important architects collects Hadid's entire oeuvre-more than 80 built and unbuilt projects over 20 years- in one significant volume.Throughout her training at London's Architectural Association, and her work with Rem Koolhaas at OMA, to the establisment of her own worldwide architectural practice, Zaha Hadid has been acclaimed for her vanguard architectonic language. Only a handful of her projects have been built-all to great critcal success- and each new project astonishes the world of design with its commitment to revolutionary forms and ideas. As a result, she has an enormous following of students and practitioners, visionaries and builders.The groundbreaking monograph contains Hadid's own striking drawings and paintings, as well as hundreds of sketches, plans, and models. Readers will recognize her built work-the Vitra Fire Station near Basel and the IBA Building in Berlin- and will welcome details of her competition entry for Chicago's ITT Building, and her winning design for the Cardiff Opera House. With generous commenary by the architect and her office, this is a landmark publication.
| 
