The late “starchitect” Zaha Hadid was a true pioneer in her field. In 2004, she was the first Muslim (and woman) to receive architecture’s highest honor, the Priztker Prize. According to Anne Quito, design and architecture reporter for Quartz, the Iraqi-born architect should be a “role model to many beyond the world of architecture” — including children.
Enter children’s book author and illustrator Jeanette Winter who was inspired years ago by photos of “Hadid’s dazzling, swoopy architecture” to write a children’s book entitled: The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid. The book depicts “Hadid’s upbringing in Iraq, her studies in London, and her travails as a boundary-breaking visionary” (per Quartz).
According to Ms. Quito: “Winter fills the book with Hadid’s eye-popping structures, including the Guangzhou Opera House in China, and the Signature Towers in UAE, as well as lesser known commissions such as the Messner Mountain Museum Corones in Italy, and the Bergisel Ski Jump in Austria.”
Ms. Winter says she hopes the book will reach children who “want to make things and into the hands of girls who think the odds are so overpowering.” Adding, “I’m writing for children with big dreams.”
