Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a key figure in architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid studied mathematics as an undergraduate and then enrolled at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1972. In search of an alternative system to traditional architectural drawing, and influenced by Suprematism and the Russian avant-garde, Hadid adopted painting as a design tool and abstraction as an investigative principle to "reinvestigate the aborted and untested experiments of Modernism [...] to unveil new fields of building".
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the fields of contemporary design, social housing, community development and improvement, restoration, reuse and area conservation, as well as landscape design and improvement of the environment.
Sinan Al-Shabibi was an Iraqi economist who served as the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq from September 2003 to October 2012.
The BMW Central Building Located in Leipzig, Germany was the winning design submitted for competition by Pritzker Prize winning architect, Zaha Hadid. The central building is the nerve center for BMW's new $1.55 billion complex built to manufacture the BMW 3 Series.
Rifat Chadirji was an Iraqi Turkmen architect. He was often referred to as the father of modern Iraqi architecture, having designed more than 100 buildings across the nation.
The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) is located at the American University of Beirut (AUB). This independent institute develops policy research in the Arab region. It is currently headed by Joseph Bahout. The Institute won a prestigious architecture award in 2016.
MAXXI is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Italian ministry of cultural heritage. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid, and won the Stirling Prize of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2010.
The year 2010 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Rasem Jamal Badran is a Saudi Arabian/Jordanian architect of Palestinian descent whose works are based on a methodological approach in defining Architecture as a continuous dialogue between contemporary needs and historical inherited cultural values.
Omrania and Associates, also known as Omrania, is an international architectural, engineering, and urban planning firm based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1973, it specializes in the design of contextual and high-performance design projects.
The year 2011 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Zaha Hadid Architects is a British architecture and design firm founded by Zaha Hadid (1950–2016), with its main office situated in Clerkenwell, London. After the death of "starchitect" Hadid, Patrik Schumacher became head of the firm, yet had to pay for use of the former business partners name at the time with a staff of 400, mostly free labour of interns sourced from teaching positions occupied by senior staff, with 36 projects across 21 countries.
AKT II is a London based firm of structural, civil and transportation engineering consultants. It was founded as Adams Kara Taylor in 1996 by Hanif Kara, Albert Williamson-Taylor and Robin Adams. Now numbering over 350 employees, it is one of the largest structural engineers in London.
Wangjing SOHO is a complex of three curvilinear asymmetric skyscrapers in Wangjing in Beijing, China, between central Beijing and Beijing Capital International Airport. The towers contain both office and retail space. Originally the SOHO was designed as a two-tower complex but due to height concerns it was redesigned as a three-tower project featuring towers of lower maximum height. One of the more than a dozen properties developed by SOHO China, the complex officially opened on 20 September 2014. The tallest of the three towers is the seventh-tallest woman-designed building in the world.
The year 2015 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Mohamed Makiya was an Iraqi architect and one of the first Iraqis to gain formal qualifications in architecture. He is noted for establishing Iraq's first department of architecture at the University of Baghdad and for his architectural designs which incorporated Islamic motifs such as calligraphy in an effort to combine Arabic architectural elements within contemporary works.
SOHO China is a Chinese building developer, primarily in the office and commercial sector, with some residential and mixed-use properties in its portfolio. The company, which uses the name "SOHO" in both English and Chinese contexts, was founded in 1995 by Chairman Pan Shiyi (潘石屹) and CEO Zhang Xin (张欣). The name SOHO comes from the phrase "Smart Office, Home Office" as the company decided to combine office rooms and residential apartments in the same building to facilitate a comfortable and productive environment.
Galaxy SOHO is an urban complex building located in Beijing, China. Built between 2009 and 2012, it is the first of three buildings designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid located in Beijing, along with Wangjing SOHO and Leeza SOHO.
Wael Muhammad As'ad Al-Masri is a Jordanian architect and native Jerusalemite of Palestinian descent.
Lina Ghotmeh is a Lebanese-born architect and founding principal of Lina Ghotmeh – Architecture based in Paris, France. Born and raised in Beirut, she introduces a distinctive architectural posture informed by concepts of rebirth and renewal with natural materials and traditional building techniques. Her work is celebrated for its sensitivity to history and materiality, linking communities past and present, ultimately seeking to create a sustainable, inclusive architecture.
