Even after her untimely and unforeseen death in 2016, Dame Zaha Hadid continues to live in her legacy, and because of the immense impact she had, we still feel her presence in the world of architecture and design. As a female in the industry, Hadid’s achievements are as impressive and as monumental as the effect of her buildings; she never allowed to be defined by ethnicity or gender, but solely by her visions.
Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad, Iraq, where she studied maths before moving to London to study architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. She started her practice in 1980.
In 2004, she was the first female to receive the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize since its 1979 inception. Two years in a row, in 2010 and 2011, she was awarded UK’s most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize. In 2012 she was honoured by receiving a title of Dame by the Queen for her services in architecture. She is the first and the only woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects which was also approved by the Queen.
She was known as the “Queen of the curve” for her fluid and dramatic designs that have provoked both admiration and controversy. She introduced new shapes to modern architecture, shapes that formed new expressions and spoke a new language in architecture.
Her most significant finished projects include the aquatic centre for the London 2012 Olympics, the Guangzhou Opera House in China, the Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum in the US, and Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan.
Many of her projects are still under construction, including three Australian projects.