Ten years after Zaha Hadid’s death, the renowned architecture studio she founded has formally removed her full name from its brand. Patrick Schumacher, her longtime partner and the firm’s leader since 2016, said in an Instagram post that the office will now be called ZHA and will operate under a new company name, ZHA Architects: Global Architecture Studio. He described the move as a “natural evolution of the brand,” saying the firm is shifting toward a more collective identity as many of Hadid’s personally led projects near completion and dozens of new commissions move ahead worldwide.
The decision follows a long legal dispute with the Zaha Hadid Foundation over rights to the architect’s name. In February, a UK appeals court overturned a 2024 ruling that had required the firm to keep operating under Hadid’s full name and pay the foundation royalties equal to 6% of annual revenue. The new ruling allowed renewed talks over the licensing deal or, alternatively, a complete name change. The studio chose the latter and said on its new website that the license agreement with the foundation has ended.
The rebrand is not a clean break. The initials ZHA, long used as shorthand for Zaha Hadid Architects, remain in place, preserving the firm’s global recognition while signaling a shift away from exclusive reliance on its founder’s name. Hadid, who was born in Baghdad to an Iraqi family, won the 2004 Pritzker Prize as the first woman to receive it and the 2005 RIBA Gold Medal. Known for fluid, curved, futuristic forms, she helped define parametric and deconstructivist architecture.
Her work continues to shape the studio’s output years after her death. Major projects completed after 2016 include the Central Bank of Iraq, the Guangzhou Opera House, the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, MAXXI in Rome, and Al Janoub Stadium in Qatar. The firm remains involved in dozens of projects around the world, while critics have long questioned the high costs and technical complexity of its work. The name change highlights the tension between Hadid’s legacy as an individual visionary and the firm’s evolution into a global corporate brand.
