Zaha Hadid's first 3D models, 1991–1994, surface in archive footage

May 20. Dezeen published footage this morning of Zaha Hadid Architects' earliest 3D computer models, circa 1991–1994, released by architect Daniel Oakley. The clips show wire-frame structures rotating in low-res animation, Boolean operations assembling curved forms, a studio learning to think in digital space before the tools had caught up.

Oakley worked at ZHA during the parametric turn. The footage he's releasing predates the firm's signature render style by nearly a decade. These are experiments: a cantilevered roof modeled in polygons, a bridge section tested for curvature continuity, forms that would later become the Cardiff Bay Opera House competition entry. No photorealism. Just geometry.

The models were built in software called FormZ and Alias, early CAD platforms that required manual coordinate input and had no real-time preview. A single rotation could take minutes to render. The studio was working on SGI workstations, Unix-based machines the size of filing cabinets. Oakley notes in his release text that the team printed each iteration to paper because screen time was rationed.

What the footage reveals: the studio's formal language was already parametric before the term became doctrine. The curves aren't arbitrary. They follow structural logic, even when the software couldn't simulate load. You can see the hand of the architect adjusting control points, testing a form's coherence from multiple angles, checking whether a surface reads as a single gesture or a patchwork.

The release is part of Dezeen's Parametricism series, which has been documenting the style's foundational moment. Most of the early work hasn't been shown publicly. ZHA's archive is vast, and the digital files from this period are stored on obsolete media formats. Oakley had access during his tenure and kept copies.

The clips run silent. No voiceover, no annotation. Just the models spinning in space, polygons snapping into place, a studio figuring out what architecture could look like when the computer became a design tool rather than a drafting assistant.