I am delighted to announce that governors have decided that the new Sixth Form building will be called The Zaha Hadid Building, after the groundbreaking, leading architect, who was a pupil at Berkhamsted Girls School. Indeed, Microsoft Copilot rates her as the leading architect in the world in the late 20th Century. The particular buildings with which she is associated include the aquatics centre used at the London 2012 Olympics, Beijing Daxing International Airport and the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. (See HERE for more information about her most iconic buildings.)

Zaha Hadid came to Berkhamsted in 1967 from school in Baghdad, and said in a BBC interview: “My parents were fantastically liberal and supportive and I was very lucky when I went to school here [ie in the UK, at Berkhamsted], the same happened and you know it’s also if you are at the right place at the right time, the kind of people you choose to study with and the people you listen to…”.

She was made a Dame in 2012; very sadly, she died of a heart attack in March 2016, in Florida, aged 65. The firm she founded continues to bear her name, and her foundation supports potential architects from backgrounds which are under-represented in that industry.

I am confident that naming the building after one of our most illustrious former pupils will emphasise to the pupils the impact that they might be able to have on the world if they choose an area of work about which they are hugely enthusiastic, about the power of a single person to challenge perceptions in that field (and to change practice), and the combination of professional success and altruism which encapsulates her legacy.

I hope many generations of Berkhamstedians study successfully and happily in the building which will bear her name!

With best wishes
Richard Backhouse – Principal