The Council is saddened to hear Elia Zenghelis, co-founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), died on 30 August 2026, at the age of 89. His career spanned more than six decades and helped shape architectural thinking about the contemporary city, while his teaching influenced generations of architects across Europe and the United States.
Born in Athens in 1937, Zenghelis moved to London to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA), graduating in 1961. He began teaching at the AA in 1963 and became an important figure in the school’s emerging culture of experimental architectural and urban thought. It was there that he met Rem Koolhaas, then a student, beginning a collaboration that would have a lasting influence on contemporary architecture.
Zenghelis, Koolhaas, Zoe Zenghelis, and Madelon Vriesendorp collaborated on the influential 1972 project Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, which used London as the setting for an exploration of architecture, metropolitan life, politics, and social organization. The four went on to establish OMA in 1975.
During OMA’s formative period, Zenghelis contributed to projects including the Extension of the Dutch Houses of Parliament in The Hague, the Lützowstrasse housing project for IBA Berlin, and the competition proposal for Parc de la Villette in Paris. He led OMA’s London office from 1980 to 1987 and its Athens office from 1982 to 1987. His work during this period explored architecture at multiple scales, connecting individual buildings with larger questions of housing, infrastructure, public space, and metropolitan form.
In 1987, Zenghelis established Gigantes Zenghelis Architects in Athens with architect Eleni Gigantes. In addition to his decades at the AA, he taught at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the Berlage Institute, EPFL, ETH Zurich, Yale University, and other institutions. He was appointed professor of Baukunst at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1989, succeeding James Stirling, and remained there until 2002. In 2000, the Royal Institute of British Architects recognized his contribution to architectural education with the Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Education.
Zenghelis’s legacy extends across both architectural practice and pedagogy. His early work with OMA helped establish an approach in which architecture and urbanism were considered inseparable from the social, political, and cultural forces shaping cities. Through decades in the studio and classroom, he carried those questions forward, influencing architects whose own work would reshape cities around the world.
His influence was recognized this year by the Council’s announcement on 14 August 2026 of the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award being awarded to OMA, the practice he co-founded. The award recognizes an individual or organization whose sustained body of work has profoundly influenced the evolution of tall buildings and cities.
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