Zaha Hadid Discusses Her 3D-Printed United Nude Collaboration With designboom

As part of Milan Design Week 2015, United Nude and 3D Systems are presenting “Re-Inventing Shoes,” an exhibition featuring 3D printed shoe concepts from some of the world’s leading architects and designers. Creatives including Ben Van Berkel, Fernando Romero, Michael Young, Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid were given complete creative freedom in the project, meant to be an exploration into the potential of 3D printing technology as a part of the design process. designboom had a chance to speak with Hadid about her involvement in the project, her vision for the footwear, and her approach to design as a whole. An excerpt appears below while the interview can be read over at designboom in its entirety.

What were the main challenges when transferring your architectural language into the form of a pair of shoes and how were you able to overcome these issues? The shoe you designed for United Nude is both a challenge to preconceived formal limits of shoes, as well as a synthesis of materiality, ergonomics and dynamism, which aspect was conceived first and why was it more important than the other?
As a designer, you first have to understand how shoes land with each step, how the wearer can balance and also the ergonomics and dynamics of how to ensure comfort and support – it’s all about working with the foot. But of course our intention was also to create a shoe that explores new possibilities in terms of design and manufacturing techniques. All these aspects have been carefully considered as a whole, and I don’t think one is more important than the others.

With the continuing advancements in the field of 3D printing, was using the technology liberating in the sense that your design was accomplishable or did it propose new possibilities instead?
The 3D printing technology is definitely offering an exciting spectrum of new opportunities as we now have even more creative freedom and far less manufacturing limitations and constraints; great things can come out of this method of working!