Zaha Hadid's Former London HQ Opens to the Public in 2026

Ten years after Zaha Hadid's death, the Zaha Hadid Foundation will open the architect's former London headquarters to the public on November 3, 2026, following a preview on October 29.

The Grade II-listed Victorian schoolhouse at 10 Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell housed Hadid's practice for more than three decades. Studio KA, founded by Katherine Nolan and Alex Butterworth, has refurbished the building into a cultural space dedicated to architecture, design and the arts. It will hold galleries, a lecture hall, learning facilities and collection displays, alongside exhibitions, workshops and creative residencies.

Studio KA's intervention takes a careful approach to the structure, built in the early 1870s. The ground floor has been reorganized to improve circulation. Original fireplaces and doorways have been reopened, and new finishes introduce colors drawn from Hadid's paintings.

Rather than erasing the building's recent history, the refurbishment preserves details introduced during Hadid's occupation, including Z-shaped door pulls and shard-like flooring insets. Furniture and objects created by Zaha Hadid Design furnish the interiors, keeping the architect's visual language part of the everyday experience.

What opens first?

The inaugural program begins with Zaha Hadid: Architecture of Performance, the Foundation's first collection-based exhibition devoted to the architect's stage and set designs. Curated by Catherine Howe with guest curator Libby Sellers, it traces her experiments with performance environments across dance, opera and pop music.

The projects on display include:

• her 1989 collaboration with choreographer Rosemary Butcher
• the Music Video Pavilion in Groningen
• stage designs for the Pet Shop Boys' Nightlife World Tour
• set designs for Mozart's Così fan tutte at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Together, the works show how her investigations into movement, abstraction and spatial geometry extended beyond conventional architecture.

A second gallery presents The Rebar Beneath by London-based artist LionHeart, a commissioned 11-minute, dual-channel video installation combining film, poetry and performance. Developed through research into Hadid's archive, the work examines the structures beneath visible forms through layered projections and fragmented spatial compositions.

Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Mona Chalabi contributes The Completely Exhausting Inexhaustibility of Zaha Hadid, an animated visual timeline mapping the architect's life and output. Installed in the foyer, it is projected onto a textile surface inspired by an Issey Miyake coat once worn by Hadid. The program also includes public talks, tours, workshops and a pop-up AA Bookshop.

Who designed the Foundation's new identity?

Amsterdam-based Experimental Jetset has created a new graphic identity extending Hadid's appetite for experimentation into the Foundation's communications. Instead of a static logo, the designers developed a flexible typographic language shaped by a distorting grid, allowing letters and compositions to shift across applications. The system draws on ideas of transformation and continuous questioning that characterized Hadid's practice.

A redesigned website by London-based Made by ON launches during the week of October 12, incorporating the identity and offering expanded access to the Foundation's programs and archive.

How will the legacy be marked?

The Foundation joins the Architectural Association and Serpentine for 89° of Zaha Hadid, a two-day symposium across their London venues on October 30 and 31. The second date marks what would have been the architect's 76th birthday.

The initiative reflects a broader ambition to activate the Foundation's archive through research, education and exchanges with emerging creative voices. Rana Hadid, Chair of the Foundation's Trustees, said the intention is to 'preserve her legacy while carrying her ideas forward.'

With a former schoolhouse turned architectural studio now becoming a public cultural destination, the Foundation is treating that legacy as something to keep experimenting with, rather than simply preserve behind glass.