Elia Zenghelis (Ηλίας Ζέγγελης. Athens, Greece, 1937–30 August 2026) was a Greek architect and educator, widely recognized both for his role in the founding of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and for his long and influential career in architectural education.
He studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, completing his studies in 1961. From 1961 to 1971, he worked for the London-based practice Douglas Stephen and Partners while, from 1963 onward, combining professional practice with teaching at the Architectural Association. Zenghelis became a prominent figure at the school, known for introducing radical and avant-garde approaches to architectural teaching and discourse. Between 1971 and 1975, he collaborated with several architects in London, Paris, and New York, including Georges Candilis, Michael Carapetian, Arístides Romanos, Rem Koolhaas, O. M. Ungers, and Peter Eisenman.
Zenghelis achieved international recognition through his work with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), founded in 1975 together with Zoe Zenghelis, Rem Koolhaas—who had previously been his student at the Architectural Association—and Madelon Vriesendorp. From 1980 to 1987, he was the partner in charge of OMA London and, from 1982 to 1987, of OMA Athens. He played a decisive role in the practice’s early conceptual and design development, contributing to projects such as the extension of the Dutch Parliament in The Hague (1978), the Lützowstraße project for the Berlin IBA (1981), and the proposal for the Parc de la Villette in Paris (1982). The Checkpoint Charlie housing project in Berlin, initiated during his association with OMA, was subsequently developed and completed in 1990 as part of his collaboration with Eleni Gigantes.
Several paintings produced by Elia Zenghelis together with Zoe Zenghelis to represent OMA projects—including those for the Hotel Sphinx (1975) and the villa proposals for the Greek island of Antiparos—are held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. These graphic works played a fundamental role in the development and communication of the architectural ideas that characterized OMA’s early years.
In 1987, Zenghelis entered into partnership with architect Eleni Gigantes to establish Gigantes Zenghelis Architects, with offices in London and Athens. Between 2000 and 2011, the practice also maintained an office in Brussels. During the 1990s, Zenghelis gradually reduced his day-to-day involvement in professional practice in order to focus primarily on teaching, although he continued to lecture and occasionally participate in projects and collaborations. Among the best-known works of Gigantes Zenghelis Architects is the Ashikita House of Youth (1996–1998) in Kumamoto, on the Japanese island of Kyushu, designed as part of the Kumamoto ArtPolis programme.
In 1989, Zenghelis was appointed Professor of Baukunst at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, succeeding James Stirling, and remained in the position until his retirement in 2002. He also taught at the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands between 1993 and 2010 and, in 2003, was appointed a member of its board. From 1997 onward, he also pursued an extensive teaching career in Switzerland: as a visiting professor at EPFL in Lausanne from 1997 to 1998, at ETH Zurich from 1998 to 2000, and as a professor at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio from 2000 to 2007. He was also appointed Professor Emeritus at the University of Thessaly in Greece.
In 2012, he taught masterclasses at The Bartlett in London. His teaching relationship with the Yale School of Architecture subsequently developed through a series of visiting appointments. He served as Davenport Visiting Professor of Architectural Design during the autumn semesters of 2013 and 2015 and, in 2019, held the Norman R. Foster Visiting Professorship of Architectural Design. These appointments formed part of an extensive academic career spanning institutions across Europe and the United States.
In 2000, Elia Zenghelis received the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education, one of the United Kingdom’s foremost distinctions recognizing sustained contributions to architectural teaching.
Elia Zenghelis died in Athens on 30 August 2026 at the age of 89. His legacy is associated both with the early development of OMA and with a radical conception of architecture and its modes of representation, as well as with his extraordinary influence as an educator. Over the course of several decades, his teaching helped shape generations of architects and established him as one of the significant figures in architectural culture of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
