Design
Remembering Zaha Hadid
For better and for worse, Hadid was the world’s first woman starchitect.
A year after Zaha Hadid won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, she told The Wall Street Journal that her work as an architect had changed entirely. Winning the Pritzker, she said, opened the door to clients who might otherwise have judged her designs too alien, too exaggerated, and, perhaps, too feminine.
Hadid, who died of a heart attack at 65 on Thursday, shattered many glass ceilings in the field of design. She was the first woman and Muslim to win the Pritzker, the first woman and Muslim to earn the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize. She was anointed by Queen Elizabeth II and Glamour alike. For better and for worse, Hadid was the world’s first woman starchitect.