How Hadid's firm plans to move on

London

WHITE flowers fill the design gallery, with commemorative portraits placed amid undulating furniture of burnished polyurethane and marble. A condolence book rests on a stand, a construction of memories. In the main studios, nearly 400 employees labour away, deadlines pressing.

The people work quietly, still in shock. The woman who brought them here, the remarkable architect Zaha Hadid, born in Baghdad and famous worldwide, died suddenly on March 31 in Miami at the age of 65.

The sadness is strong; the star is gone. In a celebrity-driven culture, what happens to the corporation built around the star, even in essentially collaborative work like architecture?

At the Hadid firm, it is falling to Patrik Schumacher, the thoughtful German who worked alongside Ms Hadid for 28 years and was her senior partner, to pick up the pieces: keep the staff together, the work flow strong, and the clients happy. In a recent interview, he said the firm was moving forward with existing projects, including a stadium for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar; a tower in New York; a bridge in Taipei, T…