Zaha Hadid Foundation Announces Anniversary Symposium

The Zaha Hadid Foundation will mark the tenth anniversary of the architect’s death with 89 Degrees of Zaha Hadid, a two-day symposium presented in collaboration with the Architectural Association (AA) and Serpentine on 30 and 31 October 2026. Bringing together more than 40 international speakers, the programme will examine Hadid’s transformative contribution to architecture and design, her experimental approach to spatial representation, and the enduring influence of her ideas across disciplines.

The symposium will take place across three London venues: the Architectural Association, where Hadid studied from 1972 to 1977 and subsequently taught until 1987; the Zaha Hadid Foundation’s headquarters at 10 Bowling Green Lane, formerly her London office; and Serpentine, where she designed the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion in 2000 and the permanent extension of Serpentine North Gallery between 2009 and 2013.

Scheduled to coincide with what would have been Hadid’s 76th birthday on 31 October, the programme will bring together architects, artists, researchers, curators and cultural practitioners to explore the breadth of her life and work. Participants include Hélène Binet, Nigel Coates, Sir Peter Cook, Rolf Fehlbaum, Rem Koolhaas, Hayat Palumbo and Madelon Vriesendorp.

Discussions will consider Hadid’s formative years in Baghdad and Beirut, her education and teaching at the Architectural Association, and the methods of architectural representation and research developed by her and her team. The symposium will also examine the clients and collaborators who supported her ambitions, her work across different fields of design, and the public persona that became inseparable from her influence on contemporary architecture.

Revisiting an Experimental Architectural Vision

The title 89 Degrees of Zaha Hadid references her 1983 painting The World (89 Degrees), created for Planetary Architecture Two, her first UK exhibition at the Architectural Association. The work brings together a series of early projects across a skewed segment of an imagined Earth, creating a landscape of fractured geometries, shifting perspectives and fluid horizons. Its experimental visual language anticipated many of the ideas that would define Hadid’s subsequent architectural practice.

The symposium will culminate in an evening programme at Serpentine North on 31 October, featuring an interdisciplinary panel of practitioners from different generations. Their discussion will reflect on the continuing relevance of Hadid’s work and her conviction that “there should be no end to experimentation”, a principle that continues to inform architectural and artistic practice.

The programme has been curated by Aric Chen, Jihane Dyer and Francesco Fiammenghi of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, Shumon Basar of the Architectural Association, and Hans Ulrich Obrist of Serpentine.

Zaha Hadid Foundation to Reopen Former Studio

The symposium forms part of a wider programme of commemorative events, including the public reopening of the Zaha Hadid Foundation’s building at 10 Bowling Green Lane on 3 November 2026, following refurbishment by Studio KA. The former office will host a new exhibition programme exploring different dimensions of Hadid’s creative practice and legacy.

The opening programme includes Zaha Hadid: Architecture of Performance, an exhibition examining her designs for theatre and live performance. Spanning projects from her 1990 collaboration with choreographer Rosemary Butcher to her later stage designs for the Pet Shop Boys, the exhibition will explore her engagement with movement, performance and the relationship between architecture and the performing arts.

The programme will also feature The Rebar Beneath, a newly commissioned, 11-minute dual-channel video work by multidisciplinary artist LionHeart, developed through his reflections on Hadid and his time spent with the Foundation’s collection. A visualisation of the architect’s life, work and influence, titled The Completely Exhausting Inexhaustibility of Zaha Hadid, will also be unveiled. Created by Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Mona Chalabi, the work offers another perspective on the breadth of Hadid’s achievements and the continuing reach of her ideas.

A Legacy of Experimentation

Born in Baghdad in 1950, Zaha Hadid became one of the most influential architects of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. After studying mathematics at the American University of Beirut, she moved to London and enrolled at the Architectural Association in 1972, graduating with its prestigious Diploma Prize in 1977. She subsequently worked with Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture before establishing her own practice in London in 1979, which developed into Zaha Hadid Architects.

Her work challenged established architectural conventions through fluid geometries, unconventional spatial arrangements and a distinctive approach to the representation of buildings. Although her early drawings and paintings were often regarded as difficult to realise, they became central to her architectural language, anticipating structures that would later transform the possibilities of contemporary design.

Hadid received numerous international honours during her career, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, becoming the first woman to receive the award. She was also the first woman to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in her own right, in 2016. Her work extended across architecture, interiors, furniture, product design and stage design, establishing a practice that consistently challenged the boundaries between disciplines.

Aric Chen, Director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, described the anniversary programme as an opportunity to celebrate an architect who transformed the spatial and formal possibilities of the world we inhabit. Ingrid Schroder, Director of the Architectural Association, emphasised the importance of looking beyond the mythology surrounding Hadid’s public image to consider what her work continues to teach architects and students.

For Serpentine, where Hadid served as a trustee from 1996 until her death in 2016, the anniversary also represents a continuation of a longstanding relationship. Bettina Korek, CEO of Serpentine, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, its Artistic Director, highlighted the continuing influence of Hadid’s belief in experimentation on the institution’s programme and its commitment to new ideas.

Together, the symposium, exhibitions and reopening of Hadid’s former studio offer an opportunity to revisit a body of work that continues to shape architectural thinking. Ten years after her death on 31 March 2016, her legacy remains closely associated with an insistence on experimentation, interdisciplinary exchange and the pursuit of new possibilities in the built environment.

Event Details

89 Degrees of Zaha Hadid

Friday, 30 October 2026 | 10am to 6pm
Architectural Association
36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES

Saturday, 31 October 2026 | 10am to 4pm
Zaha Hadid Foundation
10 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0BQ

Saturday, 31 October 2026 | 6pm to 9pm
Serpentine North
West Carriage Drive, London W2 2AR

Foundation reopening: 3 November 2026
Zaha Hadid Foundation, 10 Bowling Green Lane, London

For further information, visit the websites of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the Architectural Association and Serpentine.