Zaha Hadid, who passed away this week, left Iraq in the early 1970s due to the increasing control of the Baath Party. She studied in Beirut and worked in London.
She became the most renowned architect in the British capital, although she broke the rules of design and art. In 2012, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2015 she became the first woman to be awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in her own right. Hadid is one of the most famous architects in the world with 1,000 projects in 40 countries.
She did not take part in politics, although her father was a minister and member of a party in Iraq in the 1950s. She was creating buildings around the world at a time when her country was being destroyed.
In the United States, she designed the Rosenthal Museum, which is described as the most beautifully built museum since the end of the Cold War. Her works are spread throughout China.
In Riyadh, on the road from the airport, she designed the Center for Petroleum Studies and Research, a unique building with sharp angles. Hadid designed another building that is supposed to be inaugurated with one of the promised metro stations. In Abu Dhabi, capital of modern Arab architecture, she designed two buildings.
In Qatar, she designed the main stadium that will host the 2022 World Cup. It is an architectural masterpiece that caused controversy when media outlets claimed that thousands of workers were killed during its construction, when construction had not even begun.
I do not know what happened to her project to build the Parliament headquarters in Baghdad, which was announced three years ago. Was it the victim of political chaos or scarce oil revenues? If completed, it would have shown Iraq’s gratitude toward one of its greatest citizens.
