Zaha Hadid’s 17 Most Striking Buildings
Iraqi British architect Zaha Hadid became famous for her intensely futuristic style characterized by curving façades, sharp angles, and severe materials such as concrete and steel. The structures she designed have successfully accomplished what mystifies so many when they observe great architecture: She took the strongest materials in the world and manipulated them to form objects that appear soft and sturdy at the same time. Over the past two decades, her work has been honored by a long list of awards. In 2004 she was the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Prize; in 2010 and 2011 she received the Stirling Prize, a British decoration for excellence in architecture; in 2014 her Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, like an undulating sheet of graph paper, won the Design Museum design of the year award; and in 2016 she became the first woman to win the RIBA Gold Medal. Hadid’s projects, many of which transform depending on the viewer’s perspective, turn architectural convention on its head. The world lost a true visionary in 2016, when 65-year-old Hadid died unexpectedly in a Miami hospital.
Photo: Hufton + Crow1/17Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan, USA (2012)
Michigan State University’s campus was never the same after Zaha Hadid completed her design for the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. Opened in 2012, the contemporary art museum appears frozen in motion.
Photo: Courtesy of OKOGroup.com2/17Capital Hill Residence, near Moscow, Russia (2018)
Capital Hill Residence was Zaha Hadid’s only private residential design. Located in a forest near Moscow, the $140 million project is half submerged into the ground.
Photo: Andrea Pistolesi/Getty Images3/17Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2012
Clad in reinforced concrete and polyester, the 619,000-square-foot Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, is known for its swooping façade. Buildings such as this helped propel Hadid’s nickname, which was The Queen of the Curve.
Photo: Allan Baxter/Getty Images4/17Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Scotland, 2011
The Riverside Museum, an addition to the Glasgow Museum of Transport in Scotland, cuts a striking figure with its zigzagging zinc-clad roof.
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Photo: View Pictures/Getty Images5/17London Aquatics Center, London, England (2011)
The London Aquatics Center was designed to accommodate 17,500 spectators for the 2012 summer Olympics. Its undulating concrete roof features cutouts that allow natural light to filter in across the pool’s blue water.
Photo: View Pictures/Getty Images6/17Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou, China (2010)
The Guangzhou Opera House in China’s Guangdong province is shaped to resemble two pebbles on the bank of the Pearl River. The interior of the shimmering main auditorium is lined with panels of gypsum molded in flowing organic shapes and lit with thousands of tiny lights that resemble stars in the night sky.
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Photo: View Pictures/Getty Images7/17Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion, Zaragoza, Spain (2008)
The Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion, built in 2008, doubles as a pedestrian bridge across the Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain. The building’s exterior, comprising 29,000 triangles, is made out of fiberglass-reinforced concrete.
Photo: View Pictures/Getty Images8/17Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (2003)
One of Hadid’s few projects that make use of cubic shapes, Cincinnati’s Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center, completed in 2003, is the first US museum designed by a woman.
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Photo: View Pictures/Getty Images9/17Ordrupgaard Museum, north of Copenhagen, Denmark (2005)
Hadid’s 2005 addition to the Ordrupgaard Museum, just north of Copenhagen, is constructed from black lava concrete and glass, which reflects the lush surroundings.
Photo: Global Moments/Getty Images10/17Phæno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany (2005)
Hadid’s design for the Phæno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany—an immense concrete structure on stilts—won a 2006 RIBA European Award.
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Photo: Arcaid/Getty Images11/17National Museum of the 21st Century Arts (MAXXI), Rome, Italy (2010)
Hewn from concrete and steel, the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts (MAXXI) in Rome is built on the site of a disused military compound.
Photo: View Pictures/Getty Images12/17Pierres Vives, Montpellier, France (2012)
The concrete-and-glass Pierres Vives building in Montpellier, France, will house three government departments.
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Photo: Getty Images13/17520 West 28th Street, New York, New York (2017)
Located along Manhattan’s West Side and next to the city’s iconic High Line public park, this residential building was among the final projects Zaha Hadid designed before her untimely death.
Photo: Getty Images/Wei-Wang14/17Nanjing International Youth Cultural Center, Jiangsu, China (2015)
It took three years to complete China’s Nanjing International Youth Cultural Center. The two swooping skyscrapers are located along the Yangtze River and contain offices, a five-star hotel across, a second hotel, and a conference center.
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Photo: Getty Images15/17Antwerp Port House, Antwerp, Belgium (2016)
Opened in 2016, the year of her death, the Antwerp Port House was the only government building designed by Hadid. The neo-futuristic design is aggressive in its dynamic lean forward, as if to symbolize the innovation of Belgium’s port city.
Photo: Getty Images16/17One Thousand Museum, Miami, Florida, USA (2019)
Rising just over 700 feet tall, Miami’s One Thousand Museum is an all-residential condominium tower located on the waterfront. The building’s signature look comes courtesy of its curved structural exoskeleton, comprising of some 5,000 pieces of glass-fiber-reinforced concrete.
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Photo: Getty Images17/17Galaxy Soho, Beijing, China (2012)
Galaxy Soho, a retail, office, and entertainment complex in Beijing, comprises four spherical structures clad in aluminum and stone that are bound together by pedestrian bridges.
