Zaha Hadid was an architect who pushed the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Her work ranged from urban-scale projects to products, interiors, and furniture, exploring new spatial concepts and intensifying existing urban landscapes. She studied architecture at the Architectural Association from 1972 and received the Diploma Prize in 1977.
She became a partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at the AA until 1987. She was Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and she was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.