"Utopia: n .an impractical idealistic scheme for social and political reform" - The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

For over twenty years the Iraqi-born, English educated architect Zaha Hadid has symbolized the vanguard of contemporary architecture. She has pushed back the boundaries of built form to forge a highly individualist architectonic language that is at once thrillingly dynamic and intensely thoughtful, and as a result now has an enormous following of students, practitioners and builders. Most people recognize her hand through the striking drawings and paintings that represent her work, but the beauty of her illustrations tend to obscure the fact that she is an architect who builds, due to their unorthodox nature.

Her works are those of wonder and amazement at first sight, they tend to enhance the environments in which they are erected by not just standing out but also merging with...