The architect who designed the London Olympics swimming venue, and landmark buildings in Guangzhou and Beijing, has died suddenly at the age of 65. We pay tribute now to Zaha Hadid, who originally came from Iraq.

The architect who designed the London Olympics swimming venue, and landmark buildings in Guangzhou and Beijing, has died suddenly at the age of 65. We pay tribute now to Zaha Hadid, who originally came from Iraq.

Hadid's firm said she died on Thursday of a heart attack in a Miami hospital after contracting bronchitis earlier this week.
 
Born and raised in Baghdad, Hadid studied in Beirut and London, where she founded her architectural firm.

Hadid was the first woman architect to win the field's highest award, the Pritzker Prize in 2004. And in 2015, she became the first woman architect to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal.

"It's also fantastic that I was acknowledged for work that was really not mainstream, was very deliberately trying to question all the things that we took for granted, and to weave a way through a kind of new urban life in the city that was to do with connectivity and malleability and accessibility," said Hadid.

Beyond all of these honors, Hadid's legacy will live on in her bold creations, including the Guangzhou Opera House in southern China and the Galaxy Soho in Beijing.

London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Summer Olympics, designed by Zaha Hadid