Hadid's paintings, which she views as "testing fields" for three-dimensional experimentation, play an important role in her efforts to expand the established notions of architectural space. Through her paintings, she explores spaces that architecture as a discipline has not considered before. This painting envisions the world without straight angles. An 89-degree world is comprised of acute forms that relate to each other in different ways. These new relations allow Hadid to render the horizon not as a single straight line, but as an expanded curve that incorporates adjacent spaces above and below.

ABOVE: The World (89 Degrees), 1983.
Acrylic on canvas, 83 7/8 x 72 1/16 inches (213 x 183 cm). Zaha Hadid Architects, London. ©Zaha Hadid, Ltd., London