Category : Remarkable People

Zaha Hadid

One of the most creative minds in history with a spectacular vision. Known as the Queen of curves and the inventory of 89 degrees.

Tempestuous personality

A tempestuous personality, dressed in flashy outfits and always accompanied by a cape. Hadid was a Baghdad-born, London-based architect. Before moving to London in 1972 as a 22 year old young woman to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, she attended the American University of Beirut where she studied mathematics. By 2012, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of her services to architecture.

Most outstanding pupil

A former professor, Koolhaas, described her at graduation as “a planet in her own orbit”. Another of her processors, Zenghelis, described her as the most outstanding pupil he ever taught. ‘We called her the inventor of the 89 degrees. Nothing was ever at 90 degrees. She had spectacular vision”.

Queen of the curve

Described by The Guardian of London as the “Queen of the curve”, who “liberated architectural geometry, giving it a whole new expressive identity”. In architecture, Hadid’s walls were rarely straight vertical lines. Rather, they were flowing boundaries that took on forms similar to calligraphy – an aesthetic that only Hadid possessed. 

Zaha, while being treated for bronchitis in a Miami hospital in March 2016, died of a heart attack. She was 65 years old.

• 2004 – she became the first woman to win the coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize
• 2010 & 2011 she won the UK’s most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize
• 2012 – she was made a Dame by Elizabeth II for services to architecture
• 2015 – she became the first and only woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects

zaha-hadid.com

• Major Works
• Aquatic Centre, London
• Broad Art Museum, Michigan USA
• The Guangzhou Opera House China
• The Beijing Daxing International Airport China

Books

Zaha Hadid Architects: Redefining Architecture and Design (The Images Publishing Group, July 2017)