Zaha used to do great buildings, architecture!, but now her office has grown to be too big and all they do is churn out objects that look cool, but that have less and less to offer architecturally. I’m formal in the way I work myself, but there has got to be some substance as well! Shrink Zaha’s latest projects by a factor of 1000 or so and they could be cool mixers, toasters or even sneakers. But architecture? Hardly anymore.

There were several other entries that would have been more deserving winners than Zaha this time, and there have been many other competitions where this holds true, too, but her name has become a trademark, a fashion accessory for people to pimp their cities with. This is blinding the juries to the extent where they don’t look for good architectural intentions or solutions anymore, but surrender to the current hype, the fancy renderings and the hope that having their own Zaha will make them stand out in the crowd. It is a sad demise for Zaha Hadid, but an even sadder one for contemporary architecture.