Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher will speak at the Dezeen Day conference in London on 30 October.

Schumacher, who has led ZHA since the death of founder Zaha Hadid in March 2016, will take part in a discussion about the future of education.

Earlier this year Schumacher ignited an international row when he claimed that many architecture schools are detached from the real world, while teachers use their positions to promote personal agendas.

Schumacher teaches at the Architectural Association's Design Research Laboratory, a unit he founded in 1996. He is also a guest professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.

At Dezeen Day the German architect will speak on a panel that will address widespread concerns about the state of architecture and design education, and propose ways of transforming it. With other high-profile panelists set to be announced soon, this promises to be an electrifying discussion.

Born in Bonn in 1961, Schumacher studied architecture in Stuttgart before coming to London to further his studies in 1987. The following year, while still a student, he met Zaha Hadid and began working with her, collaborating on her first built project, the 1993 Vitra Fire Station at Weil am Rhein.

He has worked at ZHA ever since, serving as partner and co-author alongside Hadid while developing theoretical ideas including the notion of parametricism as an architectural approach. He is today sole partner at the practice, which now employs around 400 people and has between 80 and 100 projects underway.

Schumacher described how he met Hadid and spoke about his vision for the future of the studio in an exclusive interview with Dezeen earlier this year.

Dezeen Day, our first conference, takes place at BFI Southbank beside the Thames in central London on Wednesday 30 October. The first 100 tickets are now on sale at just £250 (plus VAT), a saving of 20 per cent on the full price.

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Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, will give a keynote speech at the event while agenda-setting topics including materials after plastic, the circular economy, the future of cities and entrepreneurialism will be debated by an international line-up of leading practitioners.

Further speakers will be announced over the coming days or sign up to receive email updates.

Illustration is by Rima Sabina Aouf.