Yasmeen Lari

Yasmeen Lari (Urdu: یاسمین لاری; born c. 1941) is Pakistan's first female architect. She is best known for her involvement in the intersection of architecture and social justice. Since her official retirement from architectural practice in 2000, her UN-recognized NGO Heritage Foundation Pakistan has been taking on humanitarian relief work and historical conservation projects in rural villages all around Pakistan. She was awarded the prestigious Fukuoka Prize in 2016 and the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in 2023.
Yasmeen Lari was born in 1941 in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan, and spent her early years in and around Lahore. Her father Zafarul Ahsan, an ICS officer, was working on major development projects in Lahore and other cities, through which Lari was exposed to architecture. Her sister is Pakistani politician Nasreen Jalil. When she was 15 years old, she first left Pakistan to go to London with her family. Initially there for a vacation, she and her siblings ended up enrolling in school in London. Upon her rejection from architecture school, Yasmeen Lari studied two years of arts in London before being accepted into the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University (previously named Oxford Polytechnic).
After graduating from the Oxford School of Architecture in 1964, Lari returned to Pakistan at age 23 with her husband, Suhail Zaheer Lari, and opened her architecture firm Lari Associates in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. She became the first female architect in Pakistan. Initially, she faced difficulties when workers at construction sites challenged her authority or knowledge because of her gender.
In 1969, Lari became an elected Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Her later projects included housing such as the Angoori Bagh Housing (ABH) (1978), and commercial buildings such as the Taj Mahal Hotel, Karachi in 1981, the Finance and Trade Center in 1989, and the Pakistan State Oil House (PSO Company headquarters) in Karachi in 1991.
Lari retired in 2000 from architectural practice. However, she remains active with her historical preservation by serving as the advisor of the UNESCO project, as the executive director of Heritage Foundation Pakistan, and as the chairperson of the Karavan Initiatives.
Lari and her husband founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, a humanitarian group in 1980. Since 2010, she has built some 50,000 Pakistani homes for humanitarian causes, such as for the victims of earthquakes and flooding. Lari implements traditional building techniques and local materials, such as in the 2013 rebuilding after floods in the Sindh Valley region of Pakistan and, again in that area in 2023, building low-cost, sustainable, bamboo and mud-plastered, one room homes or chauhras. In 2013, she helped villagers in Awaran District who were hit by the 2013 Balochistan earthquake.
In 2018, Lari designed a fuel-efficient and affordable chulah (stove) that improved on traditional stoves and did not emit toxic smoke into Pakistani homes. Her stove design won her a World Habitat award that same year.
Yasmeen Lari is one of the founders and current chairwoman of the Pakistani Chapter of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU), created in 2018.
On architectural practice in Southeast Asia, Lari has said, "The two ends of the spectrum of the two worlds we live and work in are best captured in the words of two famous architects, Mies van der Rohe and Hassan Fathy. Mies van der Rohe, a master of putting the elements of a building together and the grand master of detail, has said: "I am first interested in a good building. Then I place it in the best possible spot.' In contrast Hassan Fathy, who has spoken more forcefully than any other on the beatify of the vernacular and the importance of tradition, states: 'You must start from the beginning, letting your new buildings grow from the daily lives of the people who will live in them, shaping the houses to the measure of people's songs, weaving the pattern of a village as if on the village looms, mindful of the trees and the crafts that grow there, respectful of the skylines and humble before the seasons.'"
She is best known for her work in the intersection of architecture and social justice.
Some of Yasmeen Lari's publications include:
In 2002, the Heritage Foundation received the U.N. Recognition Award from the United Nations for its efforts and results to promote cultural and historical conservation.
In 2006, Lari was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, one of the highest civil awards by the Government of Pakistan, in recognition of her services to the architectural profession and to heritage conservation of historical sites in the country.
In 2011, she received the Pakistani "1st Wonder Women of the Year Award".
In 2016, she received the Fukuoka Prize for Arts & Culture.
She has been awarded Jane Drew Prize 2020, raising the profile of women in architecture and design.
In 2021, the Politecnico di Milano awarded her the Laurea Magistrale ad Horonem in Architecture.
In 2022, she was appointed The Sir Arthur Marshall Professor of Sustainable Design in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge.
In May 2023, she received the Honorary Doctorate in Design from Oxford Brooks University, where she graduated in 1964.
On 27 April 2023 RIBA announced her as the recipient of the 2023 Royal Gold Medal.
On hearing the news that she will receive the Royal Gold Medal later this year, Yasmeen said: "I was so surprised to hear this news and of course totally delighted! I never imagined that as I focus on my country's most marginalized people — venturing down uncharted vagabond pathways -- I could still be considered for the highest of honours in the architectural profession.
"RIBA and the Award Committee have heralded a new direction for the profession, encouraging all architects to focus not only on the privileged but also humanity at large that suffers from disparities, conflicts and climate change. There are innumerable opportunities to implement principles of circular economy, de-growth, transition design, eco urbanism, and what we call Barefoot Social Architecture (BASA) to achieve climate resilience, sustainability and eco justice in the world."
Yasmeen Lari lives in Karachi, Pakistan. She was married to Suhail Zaheer Lari who passed away in 2020 due to COVID-19. She has three children.