Zaha Hadid won the Pritzker Prize in 2004, when she had only just completed her first substantial project, the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati. Now she is busy working on projects that range from masterplans in Singapore and Istanbul, to an opera house in China, a museum in Rome, and a skyscraper in Dubai. In the last year Hadid has opened two substantial buildings in Germany: a car factory for BMW and the Phaeno Science Centre, for which she was shortlisted for the 2006 RIBA Stirling Prize. Both have triumphantly demonstrated her ability to translate the essence of her virtuoso spatial invention in solid form.

The Design Museum exhibition will be the first full scale show of Zaha Hadid’s work in the UK. It will also be one of the largest projects undertaken by the Design Museum, spread over two floors of galleries, and will focus on this recent extraordinarily productive period in Hadid’s work.