Zaha Hadid Foundation, London, England

Zaha Hadid Foundation in London

6 October 2026

Design: ZHA

Refurbishment: Studio KA

London: 10 Bowling Green Lane, London, EC1R 0BQ, UK

Photo courtesy of Mary McCartney

Zaha Hadid Foundation begins new chapter with the reopening of Hadid’s former headquarters in London as a public cultural space with exhibition and events.

The tenth anniversary will be marked with 2-day symposium with the architectural association and Serpentine.

In the tenth anniversary year of her passing, the Zaha Hadid Foundation begins an exciting new chapter in London with the reopening of its newly refurbished building at 10 Bowling Green Lane, Clerkenwell, from 29 October 2026 ahead of the public opening on 3 November 2026. The former Victorian schoolhouse was home to the boundary-breaking architect’s practice for more than 30 years.

The refurbishment, by London-based Studio KA, marks a new phase for the Foundation, opening the building up as a public cultural space for architecture, design and the related arts that will highlight Zaha Hadid’s extraordinary legacy while placing it in dialogue with leading and emerging voices of today. The newly reopened building will include galleries, a learning space, lecture hall and collection display, alongside other spaces where the Foundation will host exhibitions, talks, workshops and creative residencies in what aims to be a dynamic new hub for architecture and design in London. More details on the opening programme are below.

The reopening coincides with a new visual identity for the Foundation by Amsterdam-based design studio Experimental Jetset, and a new website by Made by ON. It will be marked by 89° of Zaha Hadid, a two-day symposium on 30 and 31 October 2026 (the latter being what would have been Zaha’s 76th birthday) organised by the Zaha Hadid Foundation, Architectural Association and Serpentine, taking place across all three partner venues.

“It was Zaha’s wish for the Foundation to preserve her legacy while carrying her ideas forward: advancing education, supporting future generations and contributing to the wider field of architecture,” says Rana Hadid, Chair of the Trustees of the Zaha Hadid Foundation. “At the heart of that mission is her extraordinary archive, a profound record of her work, imagination and intellectual life. This next step will allow us to safeguard that archive, open it to wider audiences, and create new opportunities for learning, scholarship and creative discovery, ensuring that Zaha’s ideas continue to inspire generations to come.”

“We’re thrilled to see this next evolution for the Foundation at 10 Bowling Green Lane, from what was Zaha’s home base to a new home for architecture and design in London,” says Aric Chen, Director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation. “It will be where Zaha’s legacy will live on both through our programmes and exhibitions drawn from her archive, and through her forward-looking ethos as we actively engage with architectural culture today.”

A New Public Face: Refurbishment, Visual Identity, Website
Led by Katherine Nolan and Alex Butterworth, Studio KA has undertaken a sensitive refurbishment of the ground floor of 10 Bowling Green Lane, a Grade II-listed schoolhouse built in the early 1870s, that includes restoring some of the building’s original features while opening up and reconfiguring its spaces to greatly improve circulation, functionality and visitor experience. New flooring and other finishes have been applied throughout, often drawing from colours found in Zaha’s paintings, while maintaining traces of the building’s history: original features such as a fireplace and doorways have been reopened, while details implemented by Zaha – like Z-shaped door pulls and shard-like flooring insets – have been preserved.

The refurbished space is also home to Zaha Hadid Design, and features furniture and objects designed by Zaha and her studio.

The renovation was generously supported by Vitra, Viabizzuno, izé, Roca and Forbo, with additional support from Kvadrat, Shading Specialists, Swanmac and Solus Ceramics.

The Foundation is also launching a new visual identity by celebrated Amsterdam-based studio Experimental Jetset, who have developed a dynamic system, or “visual language,” drawn from Zaha’s legacy of experimentation, transformation and continuous questioning of established ideas. Moving beyond a conventional logo-led approach, the new language uses a flexible typographic system, perpetually mutated by a distorting grid, that evolves and transforms across the Foundation’s programmes and communications.

The rebrand is also marked by the launch of a new website, www.zhfoundation.com, by London-based agency Made by ON launching the week commencing 12 October 2026. Integrating Experimental Jetset’s visual language, the new platform provides a more comprehensive overview of the Foundation’s activities and programmes, as well as an improved interface for exploring its archive.

Opening Programme
Press View and Private View: 29 October 2026
Opens to the Public: 3 November 2026

The newly refurbished 10 Bowling Green Lane building will open to the public on 3 November 2026 with:

Exhibition: Gallery 1
Zaha Hadid: Architecture of Performance
Curated by Catherine Howe and Guest Curator Libby Sellers

This is the Foundation’s first collection-based exhibition dedicated to stage and set designs by Zaha and her office, exploring how her architectural language extended into immersive environments for contemporary dance, classical opera and pop music.

Projects featured span from Zaha’s d1 collaboration with British choreographer Rosemary Butcher (London, 1989) to her Music Video Pavilion (Groningen, 1990), stage environments for the Metapolis Ballet (Charleroi, 1999), a set for the Pet Shop Boys’ Nightlife World Tour (1999–2000) and her reimagining of Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, 2014).

Revealing Zaha’s lifelong pursuit of a total environment for performance, these projects parallel the layering and dynamism of her earlier abstract paintings and follow the development of complex geometries using new digital techniques that later defined her and her office’s work.

Exhibition/Artist Commission: Gallery 2
The Rebar Beneath by LionHeart, 2026

Specially commissioned by the Foundation, The Rebar Beneath by London-based multidisciplinary artist LionHeart is a dual-channel, 11-minute video work that brings together film, poetry, performance and spatial installation. Developed through an engagement with Zaha’s archive, it explores what exists beyond the surfaces we encounter, questioning how form, perception and the unseen structures beneath them shape the ways we see and understand the world.

The work invites viewers into a visually compelling environment. As it unfolds, deeper architectural and psychological inquiries emerge through abstract visual compositions, layered projections and sculptural studies that translate Zaha’s spatial logic into rhythmic, folded and fragmented forms.

Artist Commission
The Completely Exhausting Inexhaustibility of Zaha Hadid by Mona Chalabi, 2026

Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Mona Chalabi has been commissioned by the Foundation to create a timeline visualisation of Zaha’s life, work and influence. Working with the Foundation’s research team, Chalabi has brought the playful approach to data visualisation for which she’s known to create a work that explores key moments in Zaha’s life alongside her vast creative output across architecture, interiors, furniture, education, exhibitions, product, fashion and more.

Installed in the Foundation’s foyer, the timeline visualisation is projected onto a textile surface that takes cues from an Issey Miyake multi-coloured and sheer appliqué coat once worn by Zaha and now in the Foundation’s collection. The timeline’s animations feature the many hands that collaborated with Zaha and leave the threads that weave the past, present and future of her legacy open to further interpretation.

ZHA

Additional
The opening exhibitions will be accompanied by a series of public talks, tours and workshops. In addition, the Foundation will reopen at 10 Bowling Green Lane with a pop-up outpost of the Architectural Association’s AA Bookshop featuring a curated selection of publications alongside objects from Zaha Hadid Design.

About the Zaha Hadid Foundation
Established by Dame Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), the Zaha Hadid Foundation is an independent charitable organisation dedicated to the legacy of the boundary-breaking architect and her commitment to perpetual experimentation across architecture and related disciplines.

In addition to maintaining, disseminating and activating Hadid’s collection and archive, the Foundation mounts public programmes, supports education and emerging voices, and partners with a range of organisations both from its base in London, at 10 Bowling Green Lane and Shad Thames, and around the world.

Image courtesy of Mary McCartney

ZHA

Zaha Hadid Foundation, London, England images / information received 061026

Location: Zaha Hadid Foundation, 10 Bowling Green Lane, London, EC1R 0BQ

Zaha Hadid

Location: 10 Bowling Green Lane, London, EC1R 0BQ, England, UK