Kawther Ayed offers a personal response to the death of Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid.
British architecture has been mourning the loss of one of its leading practitioners, Dame Zaha Hadid. Aged just 65, Zaha Hadid was already ill with bronchitis when she suffered a heart attack, which led to her death.
Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950 and came to London in 1972, where she became the first woman to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) gold medal.
The Iraqi government described her death as “an irreplaceable loss to Iraq and the global community”.
As a British Iraqi female living in East London, Hadid’s strength of character has been an inspiration to me for a number of reasons. Assertive and persevering, she broke through to become a revolutionary force in British architecture after years of being refused commissions.
I live 10 minutes from Stratford, and on most days I pass by the Olympic Park and witness the beauty of Zaha Hadid’s Aquatics Centre – a truly remarkable building with a brilliantly engineered roof, it resembles a sort of aerodynamic cuttlefish.
One of my favourite sayings of hers is “you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.”
One thing which strikes me is that, at a time where women are revered more for the size of their bum rather than their intelligence, Zaha Hadid broke these barriers and forced the world to recognise the magnitude of her thinking.
Hadid will always be an icon in the world of architecture, and an inspiration to architects, women, and Iraqis alike.