Yasmeen Lari

Yasmeen Lari is Pakistan's pioneering female architect, born around 1941 in Dera Ghazi Khan, British India, whose career has centered on the intersection of architecture and social justice. Her architectural work between 1964 and 2000 included the Angoori Bagh Housing project in Lahore of 1978, described as Pakistan's first public housing plan, as well as commercial buildings such as the Taj Mahal Hotel in Karachi of 1981 and the Pakistan State Oil House of 1991. After retiring from architectural practice in 2000, she shifted her focus to humanitarian relief and heritage preservation through the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which she leads, and which has built around 50,000 homes for earthquake and flood victims using traditional building methods and local materials since 2010. She has received Pakistan's Sitara e Imtiaz in 2006, the Fukuoka Prize for Arts and Culture in 2016, the Jane Drew Prize in 2020, and the Royal Gold Medal from RIBA in 2023.