Architect Zaha Hadid ‘very proud’ of Royal Gold Medal

Eventually, Hadid said “listen to me” and said she was ending the interview. I think that’s an issue the government – if there’s a problem – should pick up’.

According to Riba president, Zaha Hadid is “a formidable and globally-influential force in architecture”.

“We now see more established female architects all the time”.

Montague brought up a 2013 report by the global Trade Union Confederation, which included the claim that over 1,000 migrant workers had died in Qatar on World Cup construction projects in 2012-13. It is absolutely untrue.

She added: ‘There’s no deaths on our site whatsoever, absolutely not.

Hadid: Absolutely not. Yeah, you should check your, you know, your information, before you say anything.

While Claire Fox, tweeted: ‘I absolutely love Zaha Hadid but especially now that she’s stood her ground on @BBCr4today.

When Ms Montague suggested that the issue was “fascinating”, Dame Zaha replied: ‘It’s not fascinating, because it was reported in the Press and they had to withdraw their statement and they had to apologise to me for wrongdoing’.

When Montague tried to break into to the explanation, saying she wanted to “speed up a little bit”, Hadid snapped: “Don’t ask me a question when you can’t let me finish it”.

Montague: It is very widely reported there have been a huge number of…

When Montague asked about the “soaring costs” of the Tokyo stadium, Hadid responded: “Let’s stop this conversation right now”. I don’t want to carry on.

Commenting on her award, Hadid says she was proud to be the first woman to receive the honour in her own right and that although she is seeing an increasing amount of female architects, a variety of gender-specific challenges still remain for women in the architecture industry.

Awarded since 1848, previous Royal Gold Medallists include Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Zaha Hadid hung up on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme mid-interview after presenter Sarah Montague claimed 1200 migrant workers had died building Hadid’s World Cup stadium in Qatar.

“Highly experimental, rigorous and exacting, her work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, is quite rightly revered and desired by brands and people all around the world”, she explains.

The Iraqi-British architect, who has just won one of the prestigious awards in the business, also objected to questions about the cancellation of her project to build Tokyo’s Olympic stadium.

The 64 year old architect was being interviewed on receipt of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in recognition of her life’s work.