Star architect Zaha Hadid dies

The internationally renowned architect, whose designs included the London Aquatics Centre used in the 2012 London Summer Olympics, has died, aged 65, her company said on Thursday, March 31.

"It is with great sadness that Zaha Hadid Architects have confirmed that Dame Zaha Hadid died suddenly in Miami in the early hours of this morning," the company said in a statement.

"She had contracted bronchitis earlier this week and suffered a sudden heart attack while being treated in hospital."

Messages of condolence have started pouring in online, with Hadid trending heavily on social media.

Hadid wanted 'to make buildings fly'

Hadid's projects included the MAXXI museum in Rome, the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, and a condominium along Manhattan's High Line park. Her light and airy style were celebrated around the world. She was one of the most recognized architects of our time.

Dame Zaha Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad and became the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. She studied mathematics at American University in Beirut, and later went to London to study at the Architectural Association.

In 1979, Hadid established her own London-based firm and gained international recognition in 1983 with a competition-winning entry - a "horizontal skyscraper" - for The Peak, a leisure and recreational center in Hong Kong. The design for The Peak was never realized, and neither were most of her other radical designs in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Still, much of her work can be found all around the world with several of her designs being featured in the UK, the US, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.