It’s not easy to become one of the most important architects in the world. And it’s even harder if you’re a woman, and born in the Middle East to boot! Zaha Hadid managed it. And in 2004 she even received the Pritzker architecture prize, considered equivalent to the Nobel prize in this sector.

Born in Baghdad in 1950, she obtained her masters in Mathematics at the American University of Beirut and in 1972 she moved to London to study at the Architectural association. Right after graduating she began working with the architect Elia Zenghelis and with her former teacher the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas, at the Office for metropolitan architecture, becoming a partner in 1977.

Fluidity and spatial invention are, in fact, first place in Zaha’s works. All her projects are the result of lengthy explorations into town-planning and design and of her extraordinary ability to integrate natural topography with man created systems utilising cutting edge technologies. A process that often translates into unusual and dynamic architectural shapes like the National Museum of Arts of the XXI century (MAXXI) of Rome that, together with the BMW headquarters of Leipzig and the Science Museum of Wolfsburg in Germany, represent the emblem of her research.

Her most important commitment is the London Aquatics Centre, in store for the Olympic Games of 2012. But her biggest wish remains connected to her country of origin: create a new Baghdad. In fact, for her to design the plan of her city means casting the foundations for the development of a new civilisation. Because, Zaha is convinced, architecture is always the start of everything.