Zaha Hadid Foundation Opens Her Former Clerkenwell Office With a Stage Design Exhibition

The Zaha Hadid Foundation is turning the architect’s former headquarters at 10 Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell, London, into a public venue for architecture, design and the related arts, ARTnews reports. Press and private views take place on 29 October, and the building opens to everyone on 3 November 2026, the year that marks a decade since Hadid’s death.

The building is a Grade II listed Victorian school from the early 1870s. London practice Studio KA, led by Katherine Nolan and Alex Butterworth, has refurbished it, restoring original features, laying new floors and taking cues from Hadid’s paintings for the finishes. Touches Hadid added herself, such as Z-shaped door pulls and shard-like inserts in the floor, have been kept.

What the Zaha Hadid Foundation will run there

The refurbished school holds galleries, a learning space, a lecture hall and a display of the collection, and will host exhibitions, talks, workshops and creative residencies. Rana Hadid, who chairs the foundation’s trustees, said the move will help safeguard the archive and open it to more people, calling it “a profound record of her work, imagination and intellectual life”. Director Aric Chen said the site is where her legacy will continue, through programmes drawn from the archive and through her “forward-looking ethos”.

An opening show about Hadid’s stage designs

The first exhibition, Zaha Hadid: Architecture of Performance, is curated by Catherine Howe and Libby Sellers. It looks at the sets and stage designs Hadid conceived for contemporary dance, opera and pop music.

The opening is part of a year of anniversary events. The foundation’s programme also includes 89° of Zaha Hadid, a day of talks at the foundation on 31 October organised with the Architectural Association and Serpentine.