OMA founder Rem Koolhaas says ZHA can continue to grow after the death of its founder Zaha Hadid if it follows the model used by leading fashion houses.
In an interview with UK website BDonline, Dutch architect Koolhaas said that companies like Alexander McQueen and Chanel could offer a precedent for architecture firms that lose a figurehead of Hadid's status.
"I think there is a model these days where fashion houses survive by working on the DNA of their founders," he said.
"It is a model that is becoming more and more current and it could work in architecture too, I think."
Five years after his death, Alexander McQueen was the subject of a blockbuster exhibition at London's V&A museum
British fashion house Alexander McQueen lost its founder in 2010, but has continued to realise designs that honour McQueen's dark but romantic style. The brand is now led by Sarah Burton, who was McQueen's right-hand woman. The fashion designer has also been extensively eulogised since his death, with a blockbuster exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the V&A museum in London.

Related story: Zaha Hadid was "a combination of beauty and strength" says Rem Koolhaas

Another example is Chanel, where Karl Lagerfeld has evolved Coco Chanel's original vision for modern femininity since 1983, adding his own irreverent spin to the fashion house that has helped it become one of the world's most-recognised brands.
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