Zaha Hadid Architects’ Middle East income triples

The huge hike came as the AJ100 big-hitter broke its annual turnover record for the second year in a row. The company (Zaha Hadid Ltd) posted global fee income of £69.4 million for the 12 months to 30 April 2023, up £1.3 million from 2022.

However, in its first full year as an employee-owned company, the practice reported that its profit before taxation had dipped from £918,000 to £658,000.

The number of staff employed by ZHA also dropped from 520 throughout the 2021-22 reporting year to 507 in the latest 12-month reporting period. The company’s wage bill is now £37.9 million, down from £38.6 million in 2022.

Directors’ pay, split between five indviduals, was £4.3 million, with the highest-paid director – assumed to be principal Patrik Schumacher – taking home £870,000, a decrease from the £1.2 million reported in 2022.

Although ZHA’s income in Asia dropped by £10 million to £42.2 million, this was almost entirely offset by a boom in its Middle East workload, which rose from £3.5 million in 2022 to just over £12 million in the last trading year.

The practice, which recently oversaw the completion of the King Abdullah Financial District metro station in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, is also working on Neom, part of the mega-project under way in the north-west of the country. That project reportedly includes a proposal for a 330m-tall tower designed by ZHA for the planned Trojena ski resort.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, ZHA has already designed the Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar, which was used for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and a hotel tower in Lusail.

The practice also recently announced news of an agreement to design seven mixed-use buildings on Qatar’s Qetaifan Island North.

Mouzhan Majidi, chief executive of ZHA, said: 'We continue to diversify the sectors and markets where [we] operate with 42 projects of many differing typologies currently under-construction in 21 countries around the world and have reinvested profits again this year back into our people by increasing staff bonuses during the cost of living crisis.'

Source:Hufton + Crow

New King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station in Riyadh, designed by ZHA, which opens in 2024. With six platforms over four public levels, the station will be a key interchange between Line 1, Line 4 and Line 6 of the Riyadh Metro, a new public transit system for the Saudi capital.