Architect Dame Zaha Hadid dies aged 65
Dame Zaha Hadid is widely regarded to have been among the greatest architects of her generation.
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Her list of designs includes famous buildings such as the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games, the Maxxi Museum in Italy, the Guangzhou Opera House in China and the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Azerbaijan.
Born in Baghdad in 1950, she studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before starting her design journey in 1972 at the Architectural Association in London.
More than 40 years later, the Royal Institute Of British Architects (Riba) announced Dame Zaha as the recipient of its prestigious 2016 Royal Gold Medal, approved personally by the Queen.
She was the first woman to be awarded the honour in her own right.
Awarded since 1848, previous Royal Gold Medallists include Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Dame Zaha grew up in the Iraqi capital and displayed her individualism at an early age by designing her bedroom when she was nine.
Born to a Sunni Muslim family – her father was a politician and her mother was a housewife – she was taught by Roman Catholic nuns.
By 1979 she had established her own practice in London – Zaha Hadid Architects – garnering a reputation across the world for her trail-blazing theoretical works, including The Peak in Hong Kong, the Kurfurstendamm office building in Berlin and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales.
She won acclaim in Scotland for designing the popular Riverside Museum in Glasgow, known for its distinctive roof structure.
Her first major built commission was the Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, in 1993.
In 2004, Dame Zaha became the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She has twice won the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, the Riba Stirling Prize – in 2010 for the Maxxi Museum in Rome, and in 2011 for the Evelyn Grace Academy in London.
Other awards include the Republic of France’s Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale.
In 2012, Dame Zaha was honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to architecture.
She was awarded an honorary degree from Goldsmiths to recognise her inventive approach and eagerness to challenge conventions in September 2014.