Art News

Architect Hadid’s zig-zag school wins top UK prize

LONDON (REUTERS).- Iraq-born Zaha Hadid has won Britain’s main architecture prize for a second year running with her design for a futuristic Z-shaped school in London, unexpectedly beating the 2012 Olympic Games cycling arena. The Royal Institute of British Architects‘ judges awarded the 20,000-pound prize to Hadid for the Evelyn Grace Academy, a new school in south London which they described as a “highly stylized zig-zag of steel and glass”. The London-based architect won last year’s competition for a modern art gallery in Rome and also designed the swimming pool complex for the 2012 Games. Her latest design has a bright red running track that cuts under the school building. “It is what every school should and could be,” said RIBA President Angela Brady. “The unique design, expertly inserted into an extremely tight site, celebrates the school’s sports specialism throughout its fabric.” The favourite