Submitted by WA Contents Yasmeen Lari is awarded the 2025 Lisbon Triennale Millennium Achievement Award Pakistan Architecture News - May 19, 2025 - 04:22   html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari has been awarded the 2025 Achievement Award by the Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Her more than 60-year career is a potent example of how design may be used to uplift people's quality of life, combat inequality, prevent ecological collapse, and create a more equitable future."Architecture has to change if it wants to remain relevant. Our work is not something only for the rich; poor communities all over the world need good design, because it is of even greater value to them," said Yasmeen Lari."That’s why I think my job is to rebuild lives: to create ‘poverty escape-ladders’ by losing control of the process through co-building and co-creation. We do this by sharing knowledge and mobilising villages – one village at a time."Image courtesy of Al Jazeera websiteLari, who was born in Pakistan in 1941, attended Oxford to study architecture. She became the first female architect in Pakistan when she went home after graduation and opened her own practice. Yasmeen Lari retired from her architectural practice in 2000 after a prosperous career in Karachi. She then concentrated on the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which is committed to conserving and advancing regional, sustainable, and vernacular architecture. Lari once again broadened her profession following a disastrous earthquake in 2005, adopting what she calls a bottom-up, "humanistic humanitarian action" and redefining the function of modern architecture, particularly in regions severely impacted by socioeconomic and climate-related issues. Women's Centre in Darya Khan, Pakistan, in 2011Following her "four zeros" philosophy—zero carbon, zero waste, zero donations, and zero poverty—Yasmeen Lari promised to assist in the construction of over a million homes in response to the devastating floods that hit Pakistan in 2022. Lari's subsequent career is genuinely remarkable because it accomplished this goal without the need for outside financial aid, philanthropy, or patrons. Yasmeen Lari and Nayeem Shah look at the roof of the Disaster Risk Reduction Centre. Image courtesy of Heritage Foundation of PakistanAt the Triennale 2025 opening days on October 02–04, Yasmeen Lari will give a public talk and accept the Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Awards trophy, which was created by Álvaro Siza from leftover marble from Estremoz, Portugal.The jury of the Début and Achievement Awards is comprised by architects Inês Lobo, Lígia Nobre, Samia Henni, Sandi Hilal, and Yuma Shinohara. The three Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Awards – Achievement, Début and Universities – aim to promote groundbreaking world architecture by recognising those who make it. From transdisciplinary research developed in an academic setting, to emerging talent and established practices.The top image in the article © Yasmeen Lari © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan. > via Lisbon Triennale