Zaha Hadid: Who was she and what was her design philosophy?

Her work can be seen all around the globe

Zaha Hadid is being honoured with a Google Doodle, 13 years after she became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Prtizker Architecture Prize, and just over a year since she died following a heart attack.

Ms Hadid, who was born in Baghdad but later became a British citizen, learned about abstract art and architecture from the Architectural Association in London. She was known for her use of unconventional and circular forms in her designs, which led her to be nicknamed "The Queen of the Curve" by the British media. Her early work, before computer graphic designs simplified the process, was created using innovative photocopier methods to make complex new shapes.

She was known for several high-profile works that use their surroundings as inspiration. For example, her Vitra Fire Station in Germany drew inspiration from nearby vineyards and farmland. Her design for the London Aquatic Centre has a roof that takes the shape of a wave.

(Google Doodle) (Google)

Her work was also controversial at times. A design she proposed for a stadium in Qatar was likened by several critics to a vagina. That design, too, became a lightning rod for critics upset with the treatment of foreign labourers by the government in the country. Ms Hadid would later sue a critic for defamation after it was falsely reported over a thousand workers had died working on the project before construction had begun.

Ms Hadid was born in 1950 and died in March 2016. Her portfolio as an architect is known for elevating and liberating architectural geometry, and rendering surprising new spaces with fluid forms. In addition to the Pritzker Prize, the highest achievable in architecture, Ms Hadid was also awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 2015, the top architectural award in Britain.

After attending boarding schools in England and Switzerland she studied mathematics in Beirut for a time before moving to the UK in 1972, where she studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Her work can be seen all over the world from London to China to Azerbaijan, where she designed a cultural centre that has sensuous, curving lines that contrast with the blocky buildings that surround it.