ZAHA HADID BIOGRAPHY
Guangzhou Opera House - Guangzhou, China. Ph. Iwan Baan
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Zaha Hadid, founder of Zaha Hadid
Architects, was awarded the Pritzker
Architecture Prize (considered to be
the Nobel Prize of architecture) in
2004 and is internationally known
for her architectural, theoretical and
academic work. Each of her dynamic
and innovative projects built on over
thirty years of revolutionary exploration
and research in the interrelated fields
of urbanism, architecture and design.
Working with senior office partner, Patrik
Schumacher, Hadid was interested in the
rigorous interface between architecture,
landscape, and geology; her practice
integrated
natural
topography
and
human-made
systems,
leading
to
experimentation
with
cutting-edge
technologies. Such a process often
resulted in unexpected and dynamic
architectural
forms.
The
MAXXI:
National Museum of 21st Century Arts
in Rome, Italy and the London Aquatics
Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games are
perfect examples of Hadid’s quest for
complex, fluid space. Previous buildings,
including the Cincinnati’s Rosenthal
Center for Contemporary Art, and the
China’s Guangzhou Opera House have
also been hailed as architecture that
transforms our ideas of the future with
new spatial concepts and bold, visionary
forms. In 2010 and 2011, her designs
were awarded the Stirling Prize, one of
architecture’s highest accolades, by the
Royal Institute of British Architects.
Other awards include UNESCO naming
Hadid as an ‘Artist for Peace’, the
Republic of France honouring Hadid with
the ‘Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et
des Lettres’, TIME magazine included her
in their list of the ‘100 Most Influential
People in the World’ and in 2012, Zaha
Hadid was made a Dame Commander
of the Order of the British Empire by
Queen Elizabeth II.
