The late “starchitect” Zaha Hadid should be a role model to many beyond the world of architecture—but her genius is often hidden in the dry and impenetrable language of architecture textbooks. The first solo female architect to receive her field’s highest prize, Hadid punched through all sorts of glass ceilings and stereotypes.
Years ago, photos of Hadid’s dazzling, swoopy architecture instantly sparked the imagination of children’s book author Jeanette Winter. She spent the next seven years creating a gorgeous book about the headstrong Pritzker Prize-winning architect. In “The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid,” the 78-year-old writer and illustrator depicts Hadid’s upbringing in Iraq, her studies in London, and her travails as a boundary-breaking visionary. It is the first children’s book about Hadid.