Art & Culture

Zaha Hadid Foundation Launches Full Scholarship for Aspiring Architects at AUB

BYMille Team

July 22, 2025

Nearly a decade after her passing, Dame Zaha Hadid’s revolutionary spirit continues to leave its mark on architecture, this time through a new scholarship program aimed at supporting the next generation of designers in the Arab world.

The Zaha Hadid Foundation has partnered with the American University of Beirut (AUB) to launch the Zaha Hadid Scholars Program, a fully-funded scholarship for two students entering the undergraduate architecture program at AUB’s Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. Set to begin in September 2025, the program will offer tuition, financial support, and mentorship across five years of study, and will be awarded based on both merit and need.

The initiative is a powerful tribute to the late Iraqi architect’s legacy. As one of the most influential architects of our time, Hadid was also a dedicated educator who believed deeply in nurturing emerging talent. “We are thrilled to be able to honor Zaha’s commitment to emerging and future architectural talent,” said the Zaha Hadid Foundation’s Board of Trustees, calling the collaboration with AUB a “deepening relationship.”

Born in Baghdad and educated in Beirut and London, Hadid remains a towering figure in contemporary design. After studying mathematics at AUB in the late 1960s, she went on to become the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. Her angular, futuristic buildings—from the MAXXI Museum in Rome to the London Aquatics Centre—redefined what architecture could be, often blurring the lines between art, engineering, and sculpture.

In 2014, Hadid completed the Issam Fares Institute building at AUB, a project that seamlessly echoed her signature bold and modern style. The university later awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition of her contributions to the field.

Following her death in 2016, the Zaha Hadid Foundation was created to preserve and promote her vast body of work. Housed in two London buildings, the foundation has since become a hub for exhibitions, educational programs, and research into modern architecture and design.

With the launch of the Zaha Hadid Scholars Program, the Foundation marks a new chapter in her legacy focused on nurturing the potential she always believed in. As AUB President Fadlo Khuri put it: “The visionary work of our alumna, Zaha Hadid, continues to inspire current generations of students.” And now, thanks to this scholarship, it will help launch the careers of future architectural visionaries.

Zaha Hadid Foundation Launches Full Scholarship for Aspiring Architects at AUB

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Zaha Hadid Foundation Launches Full Scholarship for Aspiring Architects at AUB

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