Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid will receive the 2016 Royal Gold Medal, the first woman to be awarded the prestigious honour, in recognition of a lifetime’s work.
The Royal Institute of British Architects announced that the award is approved by Queen Elizabeth II and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture”.
Awarded since 1848, past Royal Gold Medallists include Frank Gehry (2000), Norman Foster (1983), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941) and Sir George Gilbert Scott (1859).
Dame Zaha Hadid, architect of the long-delayed Eleftheria Square redevelopment project that will united the modern capital with the Venetian walls of the old city of Nicosia, has been cited as “a formidable and globally-influential force in architecture.”
RIBA President and chair of the selection committee, Jane Duncan said Hadid is “highly experimental, rigorous and exacting, her work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, is quite rightly revered and desired by brands and people all around the world. I am delighted Zaha will be awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 2016 and can’t wait to see what she and her practice will do next.”
Responding to the announcement, Zaha Hadid said, “I am very proud to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal, in particular, to be the first woman to receive the honour in her own right. We now see more established female architects all the time. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Sometimes the challenges are immense. There has been tremendous change over recent years and we will continue this progress.”
“Part of architecture’s job is to make people feel good in the spaces where we live, go to school or where we work – so we must be committed to raising standards. Housing, schools and other vital public buildings have always been based on the concept of minimal existence – that shouldn’t be the case today. Architects now have the skills and tools to address these critical issues,” she said.
Born in Baghdad in 1950, Zaha Hadid started her architectural journey in 1972 studying at the progressive Architectural Association in London, and having worked in Holland for a while, she established her own practice in London – Zaha Hadid Architects – in 1979 garnering a reputation across the world for her trail-blazing theoretical works including The Peak in Hong Kong (1983), the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin (1986) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994).
Hadid’s first major built commission, one that catapulted her rise, was the Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany (1993).
