Zaha Hadid

Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid was born in Baghdad to a prominent liberal family; her father Muhammad al-Hajj Husayn Hadid was a leading industrialist and co-founder of the National Democratic Party. She studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to London in 1972 to attend the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Hadid revolutionized global contemporary architecture through daring parametric design, sweeping fluid forms, and dynamic fragmented geometry. Her iconic structures—such as the MAXXI Museum in Rome, the Guangzhou Opera House, the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, and the London Aquatics Centre—redefined the possibilities of space and earned her the Pritzker Prize in 2004 and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal.