Top award for designer of Scots museum 04 | 10 | 2010

THE DESIGNER of Scotland's new £74 million flagship transport museum, which will open in Glasgow next year, has won Britain's most prestigious architecture prize.

Zaha Hadid, the architect behind the Riverside Transport Museum (pictured above), whose wavy design sits perfectly alongside the Clyde, received the £20,000 Stirling Prize for a contemporary art museum her firm designed in Rome.

Overseen by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Stirling Prize is awarded for work built or designed in Britain. Hadid was born in Iraq but studied architecture in London and established her firm there 30 years ago.

It is hoped the Riverside museum — funded by Glasgow City Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund — with its distinctive, metal-clad, zigzag design, could draw 800,000 visitors in its first year.

"We are delighted Zaha Hadid's talents have been recognised," a spokesman for Glasgow City Council said. "Future generations of Scots will be able to see a magnificent example of that talent for themselves."

Jim McGill