Lessons from the Global South: 3Ds - Decarbonise, Decolonize, Democratise Architecture
Wednesday 6th March 2024, 1pm Reilly Room
Click here to watch a recording of the lecture
Liverpool School of Architecture, in association with the Architects' Climate Action Network, is delighted to welcome Yasmeen Lari winner of the 2023 RIBA Royal Gold Medal Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work. Yasmeen, introduced by Dr Barnabas Calder, will speak for us live from Pakistan on her barefoot, zero-donor model for ultra-low-carbon development, and her flood mitigation and urban heat mitigation work in cities.
"Yasmeen Lari was the first female architect in Pakistan and winner of the Jane Drew Prize 2020. She trained as an architect in the UK and opened her practice in Pakistan at the age of 23, over the next 40 years firmly establishing herself as one the regions leading design architects with a series of startling brutalist buildings. Retiring from mainstream practice she has spent the last twenty years focused on humanitarian architecture, focusing on low-cost solutions to regional problems and the role of women in leading change."
https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/staff/professor-yasmeen-lari
Follow Yasmeen Lari on Instagram at
@barefootsocialarchitecture
@heritagefoundationpk
@densohallrahguzar
Yasmeen Lari is the cofounder and CEO of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, (@heritagefoundationpk) an organization working to conserve the nation’s historic art and architecture while providing large-scale humanitarian aid to local communities. Since the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, she has refocused her career on traditional materials, technologies, and architectures in a process she describes as “unlearning.” Positing a sustainable, grassroots model for the development of Pakistan’s built environment, she advocates for “barefoot social architecture,” a women-centered, carbon-neutral approach to housing that emphasizes co-creation and the use of sustainable materials like bamboo, lime, and mud. Under Lari’s leadership, the Heritage Foundation has helped build over 40,000 carbon-neutral structures across Pakistan.
Yasmeen Lari graduated from the Oxford School of Architecture (now Oxford Brookes University) in 1964 and was elected to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1969. She was elected president of the Institute of Architects Pakistan in 1978 and was the first chairperson of Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners (PCATP) in 1983. She retired from architectural practice in 2000 after designing several landmark projects in Pakistan, including the Taj Mahal Hotel in Karachi and the Pakistan State Oil House. For both her architectural and humanitarian work, Lari has been awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz (The Star of Distinction), Hilal-i-Imtiaz (The Crescent of Distinction), the Fukuoka Prize for Asian Art and Culture, and the Jane Drew Prize. She is the author and co-author of several books and has lectured extensively at home and abroad.
https://archleague.org/event/yasmeen-lari-current-work/
ACAN
ACAN is a network of individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown.