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Zaha Hadid Architects may no longer be called Zaha Hadid

A 2013 licensing agreement and a recent ruling by the UK Court of Appeal have opened the possibility that Zaha Hadid Architects may drop its founder’s name, ten years after her death.

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With more than 950 projects across 44 countries and offices in London, Hong Kong, Beijing and Mexico City, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) is one of the most recognisable names in contemporary architecture. Founded in 1979 by Zaha Hadid — the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize — the firm built an identity closely tied to its founder’s name, while also developing its own operational and creative autonomy into a global brand. Now, that very name could change.

Patrik Schumacher. Photo Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

At the centre of the dispute is a licensing agreement signed in 2013 between the practice and the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the organisation that manages the architect’s archive and cultural legacy. The agreement allowed the studio to continue using the name “Zaha Hadid” in exchange for an annual royalty reportedly equal to six per cent of its revenue. After Hadid’s death in 2016, leadership of the firm passed to longtime collaborator Patrik Schumacher, who now serves as principal of the London-based practice. He initiated legal proceedings against the foundation, arguing that the agreement was not intended to remain in force indefinitely. A recent decision by the UK Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the studio, determining that the agreement can be reconsidered and potentially terminated. The ruling overturns the previous interpretation and opens the door to a possible name change.

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he issue, however, goes beyond legal or financial considerations. It reflects a broader shift in global architecture: the evolving relationship between the legacy of major architects and the corporate structures that have grown from their names into independent brands. At a time when many large practices continue to deliver projects that were never imagined or approved by their founders, it is reasonable to ask whether works should continue to be signed under a name that no longer represents a living author.

Vitra Fire Station, Weil Am Rhein, Germany 1990 - 1993 Built after the fire that destroyed the original industrial facilty, the fire station at the Vitra Campus is Zaha Hadid's first actually completed project and the turning point in her design career. Later used as an exhibition space, the building is considered a deconstructivist manifesto: the exposed reinforced concrete volume resembles a sculpture embedded in the ground, with its complex and intersecting geometric forms, sharp edges, and sloping surfaces that enhance the dynamic and striking character of the composition.

Photo Yü Lan from Adobe Stock

Vitra Fire Station, Weil Am Rhein, Germany 1990 - 1993

Photo Peeradontax from Adobe Stock

Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Abu Dhabi, UAE 1997-2010 The 842-metre-long bridge spanning the Maqtah Canal, connecting the island of Abu Dhabi with the mainland, is not only a strategic urban infrastructure for vehicular access to the capital of the UAE but a clearly recognisable landmark in the area. The two road levels, each with four lanes, are supported by an entirely pre-stressed concrete structure with a fluid silhouette reminiscent of desert dunes. The dramatic night lighting accentuates the sculptural character of the construction.

Photo Hufton + Crow

Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Abu Dhabi, UAE 1997-2010

Photo Hufton + Crow

National Museum of 20th Century Arts (MAXXI), Rome, Italy 1998 - 2009 The museum in the Flaminio district, Stirling Prize for Architecture 2010, is a massive multifunctional building in reinforced concrete and glass, articulated in a complex sequence of spaces: on the ground floor, the full-height hall, bookshop, cafeteria, auditorium, research laboratories and galleries for temporary exhibitions and photography and graphics collections; on the upper floors, wide exhibition halls connected by intertwining paths. Curved walls, sloping floors, suspended staircases and walkways, and flashes of light cutting through the façade and the skylights shape an "energising" environment that subverts the constraints of spatial orthogonality.

Photo Hufton + Crow

National Museum of 20th Century Arts (MAXXI), Rome, Italy 1998 - 2009

Photo Hufton + Crow

Napoli Afragola railway station, Naples, Italy 2003-2017 Located in a rural area north of Naples, the Napoli Afragola high-speed railway station, made of reinforced concrete, clad with Corian, steelwork and glazed panels, is an imposing bridge-building that spans the tracks, with a length of about 400 metres and a width of about 44 metres, in order to overcome the barrier created by the existing railway line and provide a second mobility hub, in addition to the Napoli Centrale station. The complex, with its geometry springing from the very transit flows it generates, houses ticket offices and passenger services on the first level, and commercial services on the third and fourth levels. Solar panels integrated in the canopy roof, combined ventilation and integrated cooling and heating systems allow the annual energy demand to be minimised.

Photo Hufton + Crow

Napoli Afragola railway station, Naples, Italy 2003-2017

Photo Hufton + Crow

Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 - 2012 The centre, designed to become the main building for the nation's cultural programmes, breaks the links with the rigid, often monumental Soviet architecture widespread in Baku. The design establishes an uninterrupted relationship between the interior and the public square outside, reconnecting the building to the city through a sequence of terraced public spaces dedicated to the collective celebration of contemporary and traditional Azerbaijani culture. The volume enlivened by intricate undulations, bifurcations, folds and inflections echoes the figurative complexity of calligraphic and ornamental patterns in the Arab tradition. The lighting plays a decisive role in the composition, differentiating the perception of the building from day to night: during the day, the volume reflects the light differently according to the hour and the point of view; at night, it is gradually transformed by the interplay of interior and exterior lighting.

Photo Hufton + Crow

Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 - 2012

Photo Hufton + Crow

Serpentine North Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2009 - 2013 As the Serpentine Gallery’s first permanent building (and Zaha Hadid’s first in the heart of London), the intervention located in Kensington Gardens, strongly debated for its disruptive impact on the context, is composed of two distinct intertwined parts: a 19th-century brick building that served as a gunpowder store (The Magazine), renovated by the studio as an exhibition space, and an adjacent new tensile structure housing the communal spaces. In the extension's articulated contours, integrated by a continuous fibreglass membrane seemingly animated with a life of its own, lies Zaha Hadid's unmistakable signature, governing complexity as a response to regulatory, structural stability and energy requirements. 

Photo Luke Hayes

Serpentine North Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2009 - 2013

Photo Ed Reeve

Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing, China 2014 - 2019 The infrastructure is a masterpiece of sustainable engineering solutions. Covering an area of 700,000 square metres and built in just five years, the complex is characterised by its starfish-shaped roof, which hooks onto the ground above the vast central hall and easily directs transit flows thanks to its radial configuration. Structural spans of up to 100 m allow for large, free and flexible spaces. Numerous design solutions make the work energy efficient, reducing its impact on the landscape: from the photovoltaic panels on the roof, to the central heating system capable of recovering waste heat, to a rainwater collection system.

Photo Hufton + Crow

Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing, China 2014 - 2019

Photo Hufton + Crow

The Opus, Dubai, UAE 2012-2020 Located in the Business Bay district not far from the Burj Khalifa, The Opus is one of the latest works to have been fully supervised by Zaha Hadid in its design. The 93 metre high complex houses the luxury hotel ME Dubai, with offices on the central floors and flats on the upper floors with services provided directly by the hotel, as well as restaurants and bars. The complex is characterised by two separate towers connected at the base by a four-storey atrium and at the top by a bridge, suggesting the silhouette of a cube hollowed out in the centre by an eight-storey void, like a huge ice cube melting from the inside due to the heat. Reflective glass surfaces, in neutral tones on the outer façades and blue in the cavity, create different effects during the day. Zaha Hadid also designed the interior and furniture with a clearly recognisable style for the common areas, the 74 rooms and 19 suites.

Photo Laurian Ghinitoiu

The Opus, Dubai, UAE 2012-2020

Photo Laurian Ghinitoiu


What makes the Zaha Hadid Architects case particularly significant is that it could become one of the rare instances in which a fully active global firm renounces its founder’s name not as part of a strategic rebrand, but as the result of a legal dispute between the practice and the foundation that safeguards her legacy.

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For now, no final decision has been announced. The court’s ruling does not require a name change, but it grants the studio the right to renegotiate or terminate the licensing agreement. Whether this will ultimately lead to a rebranding remains an internal decision for ZHA.

Opening image: Zaha Hadid at the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center, Baku, November 2013. Photo Dmitry Ternovoy via Wikimedia Commons 

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