Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950, schooled in England and Beirut and eventually came to study architecture at London’s Architectural Association. In addition to the (definitely unusual) liberal and welcoming bias of her upbringing and education, the AA cemented her vision as an aesthetic one, albeit underpinned by the dizzying complexity and potential of mathematics.
Throughout her life, charisma and character overshadowed Zaha’s ferocious intellect, yet she was always aware of how architecture tended to be reduced to the grand statement, the single line, the overarching image. Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), the practice she established in 1980, was an avant-garde affair from the start. Although it operated on the fringes of convention at a time when London was a global nexus for alternative culture, the ambition to build was never absent.

zaha-hadid.com

instagram.com/zahahadidarchitects

Major Awards and Honors:

• 1982: Gold Medal Architectural Design, British Architecture for 59 Eaton Place, London
• 2000: Honourable Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2002: Commander of the British Empire
• 2004: Pritzker Architecture Prize
• 2010, 2011: Stirling Prize, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
• 2012: Order of the British Empire, Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Architecture
• 2016: Royal Gold Medal, RIBA

Zaha Hadid has won numerous awards. You can find the complete list here:

zaha-hadid.com/awards/