Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBEwas an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first Arab woman who received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, winning it in 2004. She received the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2015 she became the first woman to be awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in her own right...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth31 October 1950
CityBaghdad, Iraq
important housing important-things
Education, housing and hospitals are the most important things for society.
men thinking long
Architecture is particularly difficult for women; there's no reason for it to be. I don't want to blame men or society, but I think it was for a long time, the clients were men, the building industry is all male.
icons people design
People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that's ok.
depression depressing decision
It was such a depressing time. I didn't look very depressed, maybe, but it was really dire. I made a conscious decision not to stop, but it could have gone the other way.
years students plant
For many years, I hated nature. As a student, I refused to put a plant anywhere - a living plant, that is. Dead plants were OK.
world
As a woman, you're not accessible to every world.
thinking years cities
I miss aspects of being in the Arab world - the language - and there is a tranquility in these cities with great rivers. Whether it's Cairo or Baghdad, you sit there and you think, 'This river has flown here for thousands of years.' There are magical moments in these places.
nice thinking cities
It's very important for cities all around the world to reinvent themselves, and Glasgow is a good example of that. The Scots are very nice. I don't think they are burdened by their history.
husband nice kids
I don't think people should do things because you know, 'I am turning this age, I must go have a husband.' If you find somebody and it works out then have kids, it's very nice. But if you don't, you don't.
fashion thinking artist
People often ask me if I consider myself to be an architect, fashion designer, or artist. I'm an architect. The paintings I've done are very important to me, but they were part of a process of thinking and developing.
block believe museums
Of course I believe imaginative architecture can make a difference to people's lives, but I wish it was possible to divert some of the effort we put into ambitious museums and galleries into the basic architectural building blocks of society.
thinking interesting people
All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.
men world architecture
For a woman to go out alone into architecture is still very, very hard. It's still a man's world.
regret two done
I will always have two regrets. I don't have a presence in London, and I would have liked to have done more work in the Middle East.