A Zaha Hadid Architects associate organized the event during London Architecture Festival The sudden passing of Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born British architect and cultural icon, shocked the design community?and the world?last year. At 65, Hadid left behind a bustling firm that hasn?t slowed down since her passing and a legacy of spectacular structures.
Although she was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Prize for architecture, in 2004, Hadid initially did not want her gender to come into play. Why be known as a great female architect when you could simply be known as a great architect" This changed later in her career, says Melodie Leung, an associate at Zaha Hadid Architects and the organizer of a recent symposium of women in architecture. ?More recently,? explains Leung, ?[Hadid] also realized it was important for the younger generation for her to talk more openly about all the things she came up against.?
Echoing this spirit, and as part of the English capital?s annual London Festival of Architecture during the month of June, Leung organized a June 18th symposium of women in the architecture world. Gathered in the Ace Hotel in London?s trendy Shoreditch neighborhood, the assembled professionals spent a day engaged in a series of loosely defined discussions about unbuilt contributions to the built environment.
?There are built environments around us, but instead of focusing on the finished project, the bigger picture is that we are designing for human bein...