back to article 'Best known female architect' angrily defends gigantic vagina

The architect behind Qatar's 2022 World Cup Al Wakrah stadium has denied her creation looks like a giant vagina, describing such comparisons as "nonsense". Artist's impression of the Al Wakrah stadium. Pic: Zaha Hadid Architects No sooner were the covers whipped off the Al Wakrah design, than pundits worldwide weighed in, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Compensating for something?

    Apparantly even women do that nowadays.

    1. FartingHippo
      Boffin

      Re: Compensating for something?

      I think not. Unlike men, women rarely boast that it's REALLY BIG.

      See also Profanisaurus: wizard's sleeve

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon
        Coat

        Re: Compensating for something?

        aka Welly Top

        1. Oh Homer
          Paris Hilton

          Re: Compensating for something?

          Sorry Ms. Hadid, but that's one conspicuously colossal camel-toe, a blatantly behemothic set of beef-curtains, preternaturally prodigious pishflapps, a truly titanic tunnel-of-love.

          Period.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Compensating for something?

          That's a fish mitten so huge it qualifies as a "bucket", since it would no doubt squeak as the owner walks.

      2. Toothpick

        Re: Compensating for something?

        also - hippo's yawn or clowns pocket

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Happy

          Re: Compensating for something?

          You guys bring joy to a boring Monday morning.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Facepalm

            Re: Compensating for something?

            Jesus, did someone really vote me down for being happy?

            What kind of saddo would do that?

      3. Jordan Davenport

        Re: Compensating for something?

        "I think not. Unlike men, women rarely boast that it's REALLY BIG."

        Except when men get a giant car, they're pretty much shouting the opposite. Perhaps in the same vein this is a clever way for her to proclaim she's got dainty woman parts?

    2. Mips
      Childcatcher

      Re: Compensating for something?

      I remember some years ago an architect I worked with designed a 12000m2 office with pitched roofs shaped like tits and in the center court a conference suite shaped like bollocks and penis.

      He was not amused when I told him that I thought he had some form of fetish.

      Seems all architects are the same.

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon

        Re: Compensating for something?

        I forgot 'Wizards sleeve'

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow

    Cant wait to enter there in one.

    Can boast, I've just screwed the Qatari's Vagina.

    Whats not to like?

  3. Simon Harris

    London Aquatics Centre...

    Err... isn't that the one that looks like a giant panty-liner?

    1. rh587

      Re: London Aquatics Centre...

      I hadn't noticed, but in light of her new stadium, yes, yes it does... I wonder if this is all a practical joke on her part. So bets chaps, what will her next effort be - a surreptitious phallus, a stunning pair of norks, or something a little more inventive?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    yawn

    ""Honestly, if a guy had done this project, critics would not be making such lewd comparisons."

    Well, they would have , but that's not going to stop me from playing the femail victim card.

    1. deadlockvictim

      Re: yawn

      @AC» femail? oh dear, oh dear..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        @deadlockvictim

        Probably a blonde femail at that ;)

        1. Cliff

          Re: this

          Well, the Gherkin in London was designed by a bloke. 'Nuff said.

  5. frymaster

    I didn't even know it was done by a female architect until this article...

    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      Trollface

      Being inherently sexist....

      ...I assumed a man HAD designed it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And—for my part—, unfortunately, I'd never heard of this particular 'best-known female architect'. Not that I have posters of architects up on my walls or... whatever.

      It's difficult to argue against the interpretation of the design as 'like a super-stylised vulva', given its bilateral symmetry, the opening at the top, and the general and generous swoop-i-ness throughout. Either that or a bicycle helmet. On reflection, I'm willing to concede that people tend to see in new things that with which they're familiar—or which they have on the brain.

      1. Trixr

        Yeah, she's in the top dozen world architects, easily. Personally, I think of her as the architectural version of Helmut Newton (photographer) - ostentatious, glossy and completely soulless.

        Most of her stuff tends towards the pointier end of the scale, but some more blobular shapes are happening lately.

        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          I have to admit her design for the Broad Museum here at Michigan State leaves me cold.

          But hell, what do I know about architecture? (A little, actually, having had a course on it in grammar school. But less than a enthusiast, to say nothing of a professional.) To be honest, I don't think I care for most of the architectural styles from the 20th century, to say nothing of this one. My own house is a Queen Anne, with its inefficient irregular massing and the interior chopped up into lots of rooms, and that's the way I like it. You kids get your open floorplans off my damn lawn!

  6. returnmyjedi

    Never mind what it looks like, have they resolved the worries regarding it being all moist, sticky and possibly stinky once one slips inside?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Personally ...

    ... I think the vagina comparison is perfectly valid.

    After all, come the World Cup the field will be full of pricks.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. No, I will not fix your computer

      Re: Personally ...

      If only David Seaman was still playing......

      Seaman has come on the pitch....

      Seaman is in the box.....

      Seaman is all over him....

      Seaman is on the ball....

      etc.

      A man before his time.... (he obviously came too early)

    3. MrDamage Silver badge

      Full of Pricks?

      You're kidding right? Full of precious little princesses more like it.

      The moment an opposition player gets within 2 foot of any other player, both are going to fall over, clutching their handbags, writhing and crying in "agony".

  8. Lottie

    No idea

    I had no idea that the architect was female. I *do* however think that it looks like a giant vag.

    All that aside, it gives an update and a refresh to a classic insult......" It's like throwing a sausage into the Qatati stadium"

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: No idea

      That would be a lamb sausage, then... pork isn't a popular meat in those parts.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No idea

      So did a man design the "Gherkin"?

      seems to be a pot - kettle

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: No idea

        Not wanting to get too PC, but when men design giant pointy buildings everyone is like 'Oooh - look at the size of that.'

        A girl puts a vag around the pitch, and suddenly she has archi-cooties and half of the Reg Office 11 become sniggering Viz-reading spotty teenagers (as usual).

        Hadid's actually a damn fine architect, with an impressive track record.

        She may or may not have done this as a joke. But even if she did - so what?

        1. Lottie

          Re: No idea

          The gender of the architect had no bearing on what I thought the design looked like. Until this article, I had no idea if the person in question was male or female.

          If something looks like a foo, it looks like a foo regardless of the designers ownership of biological inspiration.

          I doubt that had it been designed by a man -as one or two commentors have already suggested- the comparrison would have been any different.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: No idea

          Hadid's actually a damn fine architect, with an impressive track record.

          Bollocks is she a damn fine architect. She's just another "starchitect", utterly incapable of creating something that sits well in its surroundings, pandering to the most vacuous and narcissistic clients.

          1. Shagbag

            Re: No idea

            Agreed. What kind of 'damn fine' architect designs a football stadium that looks like a vulva?

            1. TRT Silver badge

              Re: No idea

              Vulvuzela?

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: No idea

              Doesn't look anything like a vulva, where would you fit the airbags and roofrack?

              1. Andus McCoatover
                Windows

                where would you fit the airbags and roofrack?

                Yeah. Can't imagine seeing that outside IKEA.

                Oh, wait....

              2. DanceMan

                Re: No idea

                Swedish airbags? Thought they were Bulgarian.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    In the name of science

    I think perhaps the reg should post a picture of a vagina to compare to the stadium.

    This way we can all do a serious comparison.

  10. auburnman

    Slightly off topic...

    But while we're discussing architectural disasters, did anyone follow up ont what became of the building in London that was melting paint and setting fire to shops opposite and / or the designers thereof?

    1. James Micallef Silver badge

      Re: Slightly off topic...

      I believe they are treating outside glass with special coating at the cost of approx £1 million-ish

      1. auburnman

        Re: Slightly off topic...

        Awesome. Ironically we're just getting to the stage where the shops opposite would have been glad of the free heat.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Slightly off topic...

          There's a van with big windows doing a mobile Kebab shop thing, he's saving loads on gas but it's costing him to keep changing pitch.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Slightly off topic...

        condom put on gherkin?! Oh, the indignity. If you cun't stand the heat....

    2. Ian Yates

      Re: Slightly off topic...

      It's currently got a large sheet covering the offending (albeit not like the Qatari stadium) side.

      Amusingly, the developers' defended themselves with (not verbatim): "this is a temporary problem as the sun will soon be at an angle that doesn't cause this problem"... somehow forgetting what seasons are...

      But, as the other poster said, apparently they're going to coat the glass in something less reflective.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: the building in London that was melting paint and ....

      ITYM "the Death Ray" building. :-)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slightly off topic...

      At least that one was *not* designed by Zaha Hadid. A MAN came up with that one.

  11. Silviu C.

    So what?

    Now that they mentioned it, it kinda does look like one but, I don't get what the problem is anyway. There are plenty of guys and gals that like vaginas. I bet the detractors are mad that they can't make a stadium look like a prick, in which case this "problem" does make *them* look like pricks.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: So what?

      Vaginas are great things when there's a woman attached to them. A vagina without a woman is terribly out of context and doesn't make any sense. If you were walking down the street and saw a vagina just sitting there, by itself, on the sidewalk it would be really disturbing. I mean, what would you do with it? Is it ambulatory? Did someone drop it? Is it sentient? If I touch with my boot will my charge card be billed the regular fee plus a fetish charge?

      The implications of a giant disembodied vagina are even worse. What if a giant alien flies by and sees it but notices it is crawling with what appears to be thousands of tiny critters will the space giant attempt to eliminate the infestation? It's already shaved, will it try to bleach the entire planet? Will all of mankind be killed by due to a vagina? I always figured vaginas would be our downfall.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: So what?

        " If you were walking down the street and saw a vagina just sitting there, by itself, on the sidewalk it would be really disturbing. I mean, what would you do with it? Is it ambulatory? Did someone drop it? Is it sentient? If I touch with my boot will my charge card be billed the regular fee plus a fetish charge?"

        Search for 'Derek and Clive Live'

      2. Vic

        Re: So what?

        > A vagina without a woman is terribly out of context and doesn't make any sense.

        Oh yeah?

        Vic.

        1. Vector

          @Vic Re: So what?

          Well, yeah. Just because there are a lot of them, doesn't mean they make sense...

      3. DiViDeD

        Re: So what?

        "A vagina without a woman is "

        Available from several specialist retailers. The Japanese ones seem to be the most 'singular'

  12. JDX Gold badge

    They couldn't have picked a more fun-loving, tolerant, non-sexist nation for it either.

  13. Admiral Grace Hopper

    Vagina?

    Vulva, surely? If my vagina looked like that I'd be seeking medical attention.

    1. Denarius
      Happy

      Re: Vagina?

      you beat me to it. Look like labia to me.

  14. Frankee Llonnygog

    Even if it does look like one

    So what?

    It's not as if it looks like something really unpleasant like, say, David Cameron's face

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Even if it does look like one

      or ur anus?

  15. Huw D

    It's the perfect compliment

    To the Yas Marina hotel complex

    http://img.justthetravel.com/the-yas-hotel-abu-dhabi-2.jpg

  16. Crisp

    "Everything with a hole in it is a vagina?"

    Well it doesn't look like a giant penis.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    dont be a pussy

    honestly

  18. Don Jefe

    They should plant thousands of bushes around it.

    1. 33rpm

      Maybe it's underage?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sports fans, we now cross to the giant cun..............ningly designed stadium.

    Has anyone scored, I mean kicked a goal yet?

  20. R.Moore

    all it needs....

    ..is an airship to crash into the middle of it and the the photo op' would be complete.

  21. iRadiate

    If only she was a Brazilian and not Arabic.

    Is it me or do the people around the stadium look like stubble ?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Possibly the greatest story headline in the history of the written word

    It's especially good when you have absolutely no notion of the background or context of the story. Fabulous stuff.

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    She's correct, you know.

    It's not the vagina. It's the vulva.

    Someone clearly didn't pay attention in biology.

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      Re: She's correct, you know.

      While medically and biologically correct, in the venacular 'vagina' generally refers to the box and everything related to the box. It can of course be broken down further, but it would take a pretty horrible Human being to defend their actions in a sexual assault case by saying 'I only touched her labia minora, not her vagina, therefore no penetration occurred, thus she wasn't raped' or some shit like that.

      You've got to respect venacular usage of words in order for society to function. For example the Dr needs to know the difference between my meniscus and my 'knee' but my employer doesn't.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Everything with a hole in it is a vagina?

    there's a hole, and there's a vagina. True, there's an ass hole... but this stadium is definitely NOT shaped like an ass hole. Neither is it shaped like a nostril, nor an ear cavity. Arguably, mouth-like, which have been slapp-sticked by the female Homo Sapiens since we got off the trees, allegedly to remind male Homo about the other lips. Eye-socket? Nope. Belly-button pierced by a .22 bullet? I don't think so. Therefore, Ms The Greatest (Female) Architect on Earth, this one looks like a vagina, even if you say it looks like Obama's ass put through the grinder, sorry!

    I mean, vulva, sorry for the overgeneralization.

    1. ShadowedOne

      Re: Everything with a hole in it is a vagina?

      "there's a hole, and there's a vagina. True, there's an ass hole... but this stadium is definitely NOT shaped like an ass hole."

      The majority of the commenters however...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: definitely NOT shaped like an ass hole.

      Do you think you might have hit on a vital part of the design brief?

      This project must not, in any way, even to the wildest imagination, look like an ass hole

      Well... success, then.

  26. Stilted Banter
    Coat

    Zaha Hadid is a good architect. But this time she's muffed it.

  27. Steve Todd

    Canary wharf

    When it was first built looked pretty much like a gentleman's sausage with accompanying balls. It's not like architects don't have past form at this sort of thing. Saying that, it's not a bad looking design, certainly not one I would complain about.

  28. calumg

    Absolutely beautiful building, but yes it does. The fact that the architect is a woman is frankly irrelevant, and I get really tired of this sexist victim nonsense. Women stopped being the weaker sex a long time ago.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Had no idea that architect was a woman; I had in fact assumed that it was a man.

  30. Gerardo McFitzpatrick-O'Toole

    This *obviously* doesn't look like a vagina.

    But it most certainly does look like a vulva.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This *obviously* doesn't look like a vagina.

      60+ comments and still nobody has owned up to not being able to spot the clitoris?!

      1. Peter Simpson 1
        Trollface

        Re: This *obviously* doesn't look like a vagina.

        What do you expect, they're all guys...

        [ ducks while running away]

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This *obviously* doesn't look like a vagina.

        Now THIS in an occasion where you can say that they were holding it wrong.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It may be blue but

    It does rather look like an enormous clunge to me.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not the only ones....

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/21/penis-shaped-merseyside-housing-estate-google-earth-picture_n_4316063.html

  33. itzman
    Paris Hilton

    Lodon aquatic center?

    Looks like a 'sanitary towel'

  34. Merlinski

    OK ... so if it is, where's the G spot?

    'Cos seriously, I bet the guys playing in it won't know.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think it's rather beautiful

    But then so is a lady's downstairs bits.

    I imagine there will be hundreds of football fans wandering around the perimeter, trying to find the entrance.

  36. All names Taken
    Paris Hilton

    Can't we just rejoice in its heroic beauty without getting into a twat of an argument?

    If it rains will a great big cover made of cotton cover us?

    PS: don't be coy girls?

  37. Simon Harris
    Happy

    Time to bring out the old Not The Nine O'Clock News Sketch...

    "Nelson's willy"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th6ts_O7Jno

  38. Klek

    Commendable work

    "My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina." - Maude Lebowski

    I though the soccer pitch looked vaginal well before I was aware a woman designed it. The assumption was that the male designers had just been very, very hopeful.

    <shrugs>

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yes, the word Vagina makes me uncomfortable.

      Because I have never known how to pronounce it! Is it vaj-ee-na? or vaj-eye-na?

      So I feel damned silly every time I say it.

      1. Simon Harris

        Re: Yes, the word Vagina makes me uncomfortable.

        You say vag-ee-na, I say vaj-eye-na

        vag-ee-na, vag-eye-na, vag-ee-na, vag-eye-na

        Let's call the whole thing off!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Pint

          Re: Yes, the word Vagina makes me uncomfortable.

          Have a beer, sir, to help wash down an upvote!

  39. Enrico Vanni

    It's been bugging me for ages - the London Aquatic Centre had a familiar shape and I've now realised what it is. It looks like one of those sanitary pads - with wings!

    It all makes sense now!!

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    News for Ms Zahid

    What something looks like to other people is nothing to do with what you designed it to look like, had on your mind for it to look like, or intended it to look like.

    You cannot tell people what to see, or how to see it. Surely, as an architect, you know that?

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pudenda

    It's just that I feel that would be a useful addition to our vocabulary in this topic.

    Don't you just love the way it rolls off the tongue?

  42. Vanir

    Get your tickets

    The next showing of The Vaginal Monologues will be held at ....

  43. Jim Birch

    The world is littered with phallic buildings. If a woman wants to call herself an architect she must follow the tradition. Anything else is plain uppity.

  44. JustWondering
    Happy

    Just maybe

    One can only hope the G spot is clearly labeled for a change.

  45. MrDamage Silver badge

    Could have been worse.

    Could have looked like a blue waffle.

  46. Glen Turner 666

    Nice change

    If this stadium looks like a vulva, then the average stadium look like an anus.

  47. MacNews

    One hot ticket

    Heard there will be a screening of Rochelle, Rochelle on the scoreboard at halftime. Better order a big salad.

  48. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    phnar :)

    It is a pretty organic shape, but it is does bare rather a close resemblance. I suspect the builders were either amused, or disturbed, but kept quiet.

    Women can apparently be far quite crude in groups, and air private matters; so I suspect this offense to be quite hypocritical if she indulges in such discussion about sex.

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looking for inspiration?

    Weirdly, the London Aquatic Centre she designed looks like a giant maxi pad. I can imagine her at a loss for ideas, casting around for inspiration and then... bam... familiar objects. Guess she does her best thinking in the bogs like the rest of us.

  50. Durant Imboden

    Now, if only they'd plant some foliage around the stadium. (I'm not a fan of the Full Brazilian look.)

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