Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was an Iraqi born British architect and the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, awarded in 2004. Trained initially as a mathematician before turning to architecture, she became known for a bold, fluid deconstructivist style built from sweeping curves and dynamic geometry that had rarely been realized at building scale before advances in computer aided design made her drawings buildable. Major works include the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, the London Aquatics Centre built for the 2012 Olympics, and the MAXXI museum in Rome, each treating architecture as a continuous, sculptural form rather than a collection of discrete rooms and facades. Hadid's influence extended well beyond architecture into furniture, product and exhibition design, and her firm continued major international commissions after her death.