Dubai's Omniyat launches scholarship in honour of Zaha Hadid

Dubai-based property developer Omniyat has launched a new scholarship at one of the world’s most celebrated centres of education in honour of the late Dame Zaha Hadid.

The company said it is encouraging aspiring designers and architects from the UAE to pursue their studies through the establishment of the fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

It said in a statement that it is part of a wider drive by Omniyat to nurture the talent of tomorrow in the UAE and the Arab World and is also a tribute to the architect who designed Omniyat's Opus project in Dubai. 

The Zaha Hadid/Omniyat Fellowship Fund will provide financial aid to qualifying students from the UAE and the Arab World, and enrolled in the Master in Architecture program at the GSD.

Established by Mahdi Amjad, executive chairman and Founder of Omniyat, the fund is designed to encourage and nurture the next generation of talent.

Amjad said: “I was fortunate enough to have worked for over ten years with my dear friend and design mentor Dame Zaha Hadid on the creation of our flagship Opus Building in the heart of Dubai.

"It is through the Zaha Hadid/Omniyat fellowship that I hope other great creative minds can develop to design and build the next generation of inspirational buildings that provide unique experiences.”

Dame Zaha Hadid was a design innovator whose pioneering work—including the Aquatic Centre for the London Olympics, the Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, Michigan, and the Guangzhou Opera House in China—defies convention.

She taught at the GSD in 1986 and then again in 1994. The  Iraqi-British architect died earlier this year of a heart attack.

Patrik Schumacher, long-time partner at Zaha Hadid Architects who joined Zaha Hadid in 1988 when he was still a student said: “For me Zaha Hadid totally transformed the meaning of architectural design: she turned design into an adventure of discovery with previously unimaginable degrees of freedom. Yet, there is nothing arbitrary within her work. It was always principled and pursued to perfection. Her legacy will live on in us as well as in so many of her inspired followers.”