International architect Zaha Hadid recently unveiled her design for a motorboat commissioned by London-based art dealer and writer Kenny Schachter. The "Z-Boat" costs €375,000 (around $450,000) and only 12 limited edition models will be made.
The Z-Boat, which is actually not Hadid's first foray into vehicle design (check out the Z-Car), has earned the British-Iraqi architect a fair amount of buzz online. Forbes compared the motorboat to "Darth Vader on the sea," while Art Info joked that it was a "boat fit for Bruce Wayne."
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The Z-Boat won't become a reality until next spring. According to Hadid's designs the eight-meter vessel will be constructed using fiberglass and carbon fiber. It will come in a variety of color options including white, gray, blue and black.
Hadid and Schachter have worked together before. He previously commissioned the Z-Car, a three-wheel automobile that never made it to production. However, the prototype was exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York in 2006 and again during a Hadid retrospective in 2011.
Schachter, a self-declared "speed-freak," told Forbes that the asymmetry of Hadid's design "is a distinctive element in the boating world, which lends the boat a strong sculptural (and a little menacing) presence."
He added that the completed Z-Boat's interior will be covered in high-tech vinyl.
Hadid was the first female architect to ever win the Pritsker Prize in Architecture (2004). She also won the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011, and has also been named in Forbes' "100 Most Powerful Women" and Time's "100 Most Influential People."
