Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was a architect and designer, who redefined architecture for the 21st century; she transformed notions of what can be achieved with certain materials - specifically concrete, steel and glass. Hadid was born in Iraq in 1950 where she studied Mathematics at University of Beirut. Soon after she relocated to London and enrolled at Architectural Association School, where upon graduating in 1977 Zaha Hadid received the diploma prize.

In 1979, Hadid founded her own studio and was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize - the first woman to do so. Hadid's designs didn’t look like what architecture was expected to look like. Her designs embraced angular forms and swooping lines, which was noticeably different from the rectangular forms so central to architectural design. Zaha Hadid defined a radical new approach to architecture with multiple perspective points to evoke the chaos of modern life.

"My earliest memory of architecture was of my aunt building a house in Mosul in the north of Iraq. The architect was a close friend of my father’s and he used to come to our house with the drawings and models. I remember seeing the model in our living room and I think it triggered something, as I was completely intrigued by it." - Zaha Hadid