zaha hadid was born in bagdad (1950).

education:

trained maths at the american university of beirut (1968 - 1971) studied architecture at the architectural association school (AA)  in london, uk (1972 - 1977)

practise:

joined OMA(office of metropolitan architecture) and became a partner (1977).

own practice 'zaha hadid office' (from 1980).

teaching:

began teaching at the AA first with OMA collaborators rem koolhaas and elia zenghelis, then on her own (1978 - 1984). since then she held the kenzo tange chair at the graduate school of design, harvard university, the sullivan chair at the university of chicago school of architecture, visiting prof. at the hochschule für bildende künste in hamburg, the knolton school of architecture, ohio and at the masters studio at columbia university, new york. hadid is the current eero saarinen visiting professor of architectural design at yale university, new haven, Connecticut and currently teaches at the universität für angewandte kunst in wien.in addition, she was made honorary member of the american academy of

arts and letters and fellow of the american institute of architecture.

 

winning designs / competitions:

zaha hadid first achieved a high degree of international  recognition with her 1983 competition entry for the peak,  a leisure and recreational center in hong kong.

she subsequently won first prize in a succession of competitions,  but for some years only minor projects and exhibition designs were actually executed. winning designs include  a residential development on the kurfürstendamm, berlin (1986), originally  designed by hadid for the 'internationale bauausstellung' in berlin in 1986.  düsseldorf art and media centre (1992/93), cardiff bay opera house, wales (1994),  thames water / royal academy habitable bridge competition (1996), the commission to design the contemporary arts center in cincinnati, ohio,  was awarded to hadid in 1998,  also the university of north london holloway road bridge (1998),  and shortly afterwards she was chosen to design the centro per l’arte contemporanea in rome (1999), the bergisl ski-jump in innsbruck, austria (1999). and the science centre in wolfsburg, germany (2000),  which is due to open its doors in 2003.

major exhibitions:

retrospective at the architectural association, london (1983),  the guggenheim museum, new york (1978),  the GA gallery, tokyo (1985),  the deconstructivist architecture show at MoMA, new york (1988),  the graduate school of design at harvard university (1995),  grand central station new york (1995)  the san francisco MoMA (1997/98) sawaya & moroni, milan,italy (2000) state museum of architecture, moscow, russia (2000) ICA institute of contemporary arts, london, uk (2000)  venice architecture biennale / italian, austrian and uk pavilion (2000)villa medici, rome (2000) castello di rivoli, rivoli (turin), italy (2001) hadid’s work also forms part of the permanent collections:

zaha hadid has explored the boundaries of architecture  in a number of competition designs that always retain an exploratory character.  painting and drawing, especially in her early period,  are important techniques of investigation for her design work.  ever since her 1983 retrospective at the AA in london,

her designs have been shown in exhibitions worldwide.  MoMA new york

MoMA san franciscodeutsches architektur museum, frankfurt

the getty center in los angeles.

first and last works:

the first of her major projects to be built was the fire station for the vitra furniture factory at weil am rhein, germany (1993) and most recently the mind zone at the millennium dome, london (1999).

furniture and interiors:

bitar, london (1985) moonsoon restaurant, sapporo (1990) temporary structures, osaka (1990) music video pavilion in groningen (1990) a pavilion for 'blueprint' magazine, interbuild, birmingham (1995)z-scape for sawaya & moroni (2000)    

exhibition designs:

'the great utopia', guggenheim museum, new york (1992) 'wish mashine' the vienna kunsthalle (1996) 'addressing the century' hayward gallery, london (1998)

'installations' paper art biennale, düren (1996) venice biennale masters pavilion (1996)stage set for the pet shop boys world tour (1999 / 2000)

charleroi dance company, belgium (2000) palais des beaux arts, brussels (2000)

currently zaha hadid's office is working on a variety of projects:

the contemporary arts centre, cincinnati  the contemporary arts centre,rome

a ski-jump in innsbruck, austria a major bridge structure in abu dhabi, the science centre in wolfsburg, germany,  a ferry terminal in salerno, Italy science hub, singaporeand a tram station in strasbourg.