Zaha Hadid, Architect, 1950-2016

With great sadness, today I heard of the passing of architect Zaha Hadid. An Iraq-born woman who lived and worked in England, she left an indelible mark on world architecture. Her designs broke the bounds of what a building should look like. I will never forget the first time I saw one of her designs: fresh, inventive, new.  She was moved to create as if no building had ever existed before, seemingly uninfluenced by precedent or tradition or shoulds or musts. Zaha Hadid's architecture was like free form jazz in a world of dainty minuets. Architecture has lost an important voice.

Her buildings are intellectually challenging; they speak for themselves:

Zaha Hadid