Dame Zaha Hadid 1950-2016 was a star architect, a teacher, an artist and designer: The Queen of the Curve, “she outcurved Frank Gehry”, “a planet in its own orbit”, “larger than life and bold as brass”, “the Inventor of the 89 degrees, an architect with spectacular vision” …… Just a few remarks from fellow architects.

A woman born in Irak, a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Her major works include the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics, Rome’s MAXXI Museum, and the Guangzhou Opera House. Several of her buildings were still under construction at the time of her death, including the Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar, a venue for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Hadid was showered by awards: the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She received the UK’s most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize twice. She was made a Dame by Elizabeth II, and in 2016 she became the first woman to be individually awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. She is high on the lists of the most influential figures in the world. We are going to have a look at her visionary abstract paintings, her stunning buildings and amazing furniture and fashion. We will travel through her life from her first designs that were never built, to the highlights in her career to those that were finished after her untimely death in 2016 and see if we agree with the epithets given to her.

About the Lecturer

Drs Helen Sijsling MA (born in Australia, lived in the Netherlands, lives in Spain), MA History of Art (University of Leyden), MA English Literature (Universities of Leyden and Oxford) and MA Educational Management (University of Amsterdam). Helen taught English for the first part of her career to later become management consultant on education, advising secondary schools on educational improvement and training teachers and managers in The Netherlands and the Antilles.

Helen is presently Chairman of The Arts Society Nerja and has lectured for many years to The Arts
Societies in Europe.