A London-based global architecture practice, founded by Zaha Hadid in 1979, known for flowing, curved buildings and the London Aquatics Centre; rebranded ZHA in 2026.
Zaha Hadid Architects, which Wikipedia says rebranded in June 2026 as ZHA (registered as ZHA Architects Ltd), is an international architecture practice based in London. It became famous for sweeping, curved and daring buildings. Its UK projects include the London Aquatics Centre built for the 2012 Olympic Games, with 17,500 seats, the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, the Maggie's Centre at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, and the J. S. Bach Pavilion for the Manchester International Festival. Overseas it is known for the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, the MAXXI museum in Rome and Beijing Daxing International Airport.
Zaha Hadid (1950 to 2016) founded the practice in 1979. After her death Patrik Schumacher became head of the firm. We could not find a formal mission statement in the pages we read, so we have not invented one. What the pages do show is a practice that keeps pushing into new tools: it has an internal unit called ZHAI (Zaha Hadid Analytics + Insights) that uses artificial intelligence in workplace design, and it was part of the team behind the award-winning Striatus 3D-printed bridge in Venice.
The main office is in Clerkenwell, London, and London is listed as the headquarters. A 2026 news report says the former studio at Bowling Green Lane, the practice's long-time home, has been turned into a public arts venue by the Zaha Hadid Foundation, so the firm has changed premises over the years. Wikipedia says the practice employs around 500 people worldwide, so London is the base for a very international team. We could not verify exactly how many of them work in the UK.
On culture, the practice's own words were not available to us, and we found no staff-written material. What we can say is that the firm works across many countries at once, with Wikipedia citing 36 projects in 21 countries at one point, so teams are used to working with people and clients from different cultures. The sources describe an ambitious design-led workplace; treat that as an outside description, not a promise about working life.
The roles inside a studio like this include architects and architectural assistants, computational designers (people who use code to shape complex forms), model makers, visualisers, project managers and the finance, communications and operations staff who keep the practice running. If you like art and maths together, enjoy 3D modelling or are curious about how curved buildings are actually built, it is a good place to look. The company website is the place to check current openings.
Website: www.zaha-hadid.com
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