Zaha Hadid

Country: Born in Baghdad, Iraq; firm headquartered in London.

Year won: 2004 (first female to win).

Known for: Fluid forms and asymmetrical curves, as seen in the Vitra Fire Station (1993), the London Aquatic Centre (2011), and Miami’s One Thousand Museum (2018).

On the rise: The Opus, a multi-use development within Dubai’s Burj Khalifa district, was conceived in 2012 before Hadid’s passing in 2016. The under-construction project features Hadid’s bold curves, with an eight-story jagged void carved out of the cube-like tower.