Zaha Hadid's Iconic Architecture

Zaha Hadid, founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 and is internationally respected in the architecture industry.

She is known as an architect who consistently pushed the boundaries of architecture and urban design.

1) Port House, Antwerp, Belgium (2016)

This former fire station, which opened last September, forms the landmark headquarters of the Antwerp Port Authority. Housing offices, an auditorium, a restaurant and a courtyard, the building features an extension covered in diamond shaped glass (a tribute to the trade for which Antwerp is renowned)

2) Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku (2012)

Zaha Hadid Architects was appointed as design architects of the Heydar Aliyev Center following a competition in 2007. The Center, designed to become the primary building for the nation’s cultural programs, breaks from the rigid and often monumental Soviet architecture that is so prevalent in Baku.

3) London Aquatics Centre (2011)

A Concept inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion. Built for the Olympics, the facility includes two 50 metre swimming pools and a 25 metre diving pool.

4) Guangzhou Opera House (2010)

The design evolved from the concepts of a natural landscape and the fascinating interplay between architecture and nature; engaging with the principles of erosion, geology, and topography. The Guangzhou Opera House design has been particularly influenced by river valleys – and the way in which they are transformed by erosion.

5) Bee'ah Headquarters, Sharjah, UAE (TBC)

One of Hadid's unfinished projects. The new main office of the environmental and waste management company that will be housed in an eco-friendly complex designed like a series of intersecting dunes.

6) City of Dreams, Macau, China, 2017

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a 40-story luxury hotel for Macau’s premier leisure and entertainment destination known as “City of Dreams.” Perceived as a single “sculptural element” united by an exposed exoskeleton mesh structure, the “simple volume” was extruded from its rectangular site as two towers connected at the podium and roof levels, with two organically-shaped bridges punctuating the tower’s center external void. This central void is then celebrated by a 40-meter tall, “grandiose atrium” that greets visitors as they enter the hotel.