A Critical View: Contemporary Arts Centre in Cincinnati

The British architect Zaha Hadid was 43 when she realized her first major project. Now, ten years later, she has won the highest award an architect can gain, the Pritzker Prize. On 31 May, as the first woman and as one of the youngest prizewinners in its history, she will receive this coveted award, which is donated annually by the proprietors of the Hyatt Hotel empire. If her breakthrough could be attributed to a single building, it would be the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio, which opened in May 2003. The building, which decided the Pritzker Prize jury in her favour, marks a turning point in her career.