Pakistan’s first woman architect, Yasmeen Lari may have begun her acclaimed career with grand and gilded modernist structures and brutalist homes, but it’s the pioneering architect’s work after her retirement in 2000 that sets her apart. Since 2005, after the fatal Kashmir earthquake hit Pakistan, Lari built what is now the world’s largest zero-carbon DIY design movement for climate refugees. Relying on local materials (like bamboo, clay and lime) and traditional techniques, Lari conceived a low-cost and sustainable way to build climate-resistant homes, community buildings and sanitary facilities for those impacted by climate injustice. “It’s about which method is the most cost-effective, safest, and most ecological, and then to implement it en masse,” says Lari who is currently being honored at her first monograph at Architekturzentrum Wien in Vienna, Austria. Learn more about her brilliant work and how it envisions a future of modern architecture at Metropolis.
Image courtesy of Archive Yasmeen Lari