Surely the most amusing moment in 'Building Zaha', an inspiring biography of the late, award-winning architect Zaha Hadid (written and illustrated specially for kids by fellow architect Victoria Tentler-Krylov, and published by Orchard Books / Scholastic), is when one of her brothers, recognizing her tremendous potential, suggests she could possibly even become an astronaut.

"I want to be an architect!", the young Zaha replies. The book then makes the point that she would just be exploring a different kind of space. Get it?

Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, in her student days she attended boarding schools in England and Switzerland, eventually relocating to London in 1972. There she attended the somewhat awkwardly named Architectural Association School of Architecture (huh??), where she would study with such future icons of the profession as Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi. Of course, the field was absolutely dominated by men at the time - only making Zaha's eventual rise to the top all the more impressive.

The beautifully illustrated book tells the story of how long before she was famous she entered into the competition to build a hotel / sports club; and though her astonishing "confetti snowstorm" concept won out, it was so elaborate and ahead of its time, that the project was actually never built. She ultimately found herself fighting off the tag of "paper architect", one whose designs were too complicated to ever come to fruition.

Of course, Zaha would have the last word, going on to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2004, and later designing such masterpieces as the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics, The Broad museum in Los Angeles, the Guangzhou Opera House, and the truly eye-popping MAXXI Museum in Rome, one of the few truly notable contemporary buildings in the history-obsessed Eternal City.

(Our favorite of hers remains the dizzying 2002 Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck, Austria.)

Zaha passed away at the far too young age of 65 in 2016; and perhaps her greatest legacy is as a continuing inspiration to young women hoping to have a career in architecture. It's actually not hard to imagine, then, that flipping through the pages of 'Building Zaha' could play a significant part in fostering precisely such inspiration.