Zaha Hadid is a globally reknowned architect, known for her dynamic and innovative projects built on 30 years of experimentation and research.

The award is given in recognition of a lifetime's work and is personally approved by Her Majesty The Queen. The criteria for the award is that a person, or a group of people, have influenced 'either directly or indeirecly on the advancement of architecture'.

RIBA President and chair of the selection committee, Jane Duncan, said, “Zaha Hadid is a formidable and globally-influential force in architecture. Highly experimental, rigorous and exacting, her work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, is quite rightly revered and desired by brands and people all around the world.”

“I am very proud to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal, in particular, to be the first woman to receive the honour in her own right," said Zaha Hadid of the announcement.

Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950, and began studying architecture in London in 1972. She established her own practice in London in 1979. In 2004, she became the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Price, and she holds a number of academic roles all over the world.