Gold Medal for the diva

摘要

At last, Zaha Hadid has the Royal Gold Medal, the world's top prize for achitecture. It's the final and conclusive accolade in a 20-year climb back from being treated despicably after winning the Cardiff Bay Opera House competition, but not building the building. Ya boo sucks to the bad burghers of Cardiff. She received the gong last week at a glittering ceremony at the RIBA. I am personally delighted to see her win. When I was president of the RIBA between 2005-2007, I chaired two Royal Gold Medal (RGM) juries and had Hadid shortlisted both times. Her lack of an extensive portfolio at the time, however, meant she couldn't be put through. Since then she has piled a whole career's worth of buildings into just a decade and picked up the Pritzker prize, back-to-back Stirling prizes for best building of the year and a damehood. In truth, it was becoming embarrassing that she did not have the Gold Medal, so hats off to the current RIBA president Jane Duncan for putting that right.