The Architects Who Stayed: BIG, Zaha Hadid, OMA, and the Moral Calculus of Building NEOM

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Architecture is a profession that operates on commissions. The client provides the brief and the budget. The architect provides the vision and, implicitly, the legitimacy. A rendering by Zaha Hadid Architects transforms a construction project into a cultural event. A design by Bjarke Ingels Group transforms a developer’s ambition into a magazine cover. The exchange is understood: the architect provides aesthetic authority, and the client provides the cheque. The question of what happens beneath the rendering — who builds it, under what conditions, and at what human cost — is one that the profession has historically treated as outside its scope.

Zaha-Hadid on SAUDI VISION 2030 Intelligence Platform

The Architects Who Stayed: BIG, Zaha Hadid, OMA, and the Moral Calculus of Building NEOM