The Iraqi-British Zaha Hadid became famous for her intensely futuristic architecture characterized by curving façades, sharp angles, and severe materials such as concrete and steel. The structures she designed successfully accomplished what mystifies so many when they observe great architecture: She took the strongest materials in the world and manipulated them to form objects that appear soft and sturdy at the same time. Over the last two decades, her work has been honored by a long list of awards: In 2004 she was the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Prize; in 2010 and 2011 she received the Stirling Prize, a British decoration for excellence in architecture; in 2014 her Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, like an undulating sheet of graph paper, won the Design Museum Design of the Year Award; and in 2016 she became the first woman to win the RIBA Gold Medal. Hadid’s projects, many of which transform depending on the viewer’s perspective, turn architectural convention on its head. The world lost a true visionary in 2016 when the 65-year-old Hadid died unexpectedly in a Miami hospital.
1. Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum The design of the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum, located at the northern edge of the Michigan State University campus, is influenced by a set of movement paths that traverse and border the site.
2. Capital Hill Residence was Zaha Hadid's only private residential design. Located in a forest near Moscow, the $140 million project is half submerged into the ground.
3. The Heydar Aliyev Center hosts a variety of cultural programs, its design is a departure from the rigid and often monumental architecture of the former Soviet Union that is so prevalent in Baku, aspiring instead to express the sensibilities and diversity of Azeri culture.
4. The Riverside Museum is the location of the Glasgow Museum of Transport, at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The building opened in June 2011. The museum won the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award.
5. The London Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility with two 50-metre (164-foot) swimming pools and a 25-metre (82-foot) diving pool in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The centre, one of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Paralympics, was used for the swimming, diving and synchronised swimming events. After significant modification, the centre opened to the public in March 2014.
6. Guangzhou Opera House (simplified Chinese: 广州大剧院; traditional Chinese: 廣州大劇院; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu dajùyuàn; Jyutping: Gwong2 zau1 daai6 kek6 jyun2) is a Chinese opera house in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. Designed by Zaha Hadid, it opened on the 9th of May in 2010.
7. The Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion, built in 2008, doubles as a pedestrian bridge across the Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain. The building’s exterior, comprising 29,000 triangles, is composed of fiberglass-reinforced concrete.
8. The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media. Focusing on programming that reflects "the art of the last five minutes," the CAC has displayed the works of many now-famous artists early in their careers, including Andy Warhol. In 2003, the CAC moved to a new building designed by the late Zaha Hadid.
9. Ordrupgaard is a state-owned art museum situated near Jægersborg Dyrehave, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The museum houses one of Northern Europe’s most considerable collections of Danish and French art from the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
10. The Phæno Science Center is an interactive science center in Wolfsburg, Germany, completed in 2005. -- won a 2006 RIBA European Award.
11. MAXXI (Italian: Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, "national museum of 21st-century arts") is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Italian ministry of cultural heritage. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid, and won the Stirling Prize of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2010.
12. Galaxy SOHO (simplified Chinese: 银河SOHO; traditional Chinese: 銀河SOHO; pinyin: Yínhé SOHO) is an urban complex building located in Beijing, China. Built between 2008 and 2014, it is the first of two buildings designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid located in Beijing, along with Wangjing SOHO.
The building is located in the southwest corner of Chaoyangmen Bridge in the Second Ring Road of Beijing. The complex features a curvilinear design consisting of four asymmetric continuous structures. It covers an area of 330,000 m2. The parametric design of the building was inspired by classical Chinese courtyards. The complex offers shops, offices and entertainment facilities.
13. The Pierres Vives centre is a purpose-built government building in Montpellier, France. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the glass and concrete building houses the multimedia library, public archive and sports department of the Herault regional government.
