The second episode in the TV series, “Rebel Architecture” produced by Al Jazeera English focuses on Yasmeen Lari, the first female architect in Pakistan, who has become famous all over the world for her work in the humanitarian field.

Yasmeen Lari is the first woman in Pakistan with a degree in architecture. She has been a professional architect since she set up her practice in 1964, designing some of Karachi’s biggest buildings. 

Yasmeen Lari is profiled in the second episode of the Al Jazeera English TV series “Rebel Architecture”, which mainly focuses on her humanitarian work. In 1980, she founded the non-profit Heritage Foundation together with her husband, investing in Pakistan’s cultural heritage (“the best-kept secret of the country” according to the foundation’s website) to promote her country’s development.

For a long time, Yasmeen Lari has worked with a number of humanitarian organizations, like Architecture for Humanity. She is particularly active in the area of disaster relief, where she uses traditional techniques and local materials to design affordable shelters with an almost-zero carbon footprint. After the terrible earthquake in 2005, she designed almost 2000 sustainable shelters made from bamboo, adobe/mud and lime.

And when 20 million people in Pakistan were affected by the disastrous floods of 2010, she built 36,000 low-cost, disaster-proof houses that also promote a sustainable lifestyle, restoring the sense of worth of households, and giving them dignity. She was particularly concerned for women and incorporated courtyards where they could do chores together, grow their own vegetables, designing them so the women could also watch their children playing. Because Yasmeen Lari is convinced that disaster-affected households deserve the same dignity and respect as any other clients, and that this is fundamental for architecture to be harmoniously integrated into its social, cultural and environmental context. 

The episode “A TRADITIONAL FUTURE” featuring Yasmeen Lari is airing today, 25 August 2014.

(Christiane Bürklein)

Title: The Traditional Future  
Transmission date: 25th August 2014
Dir: Faiza Ahmad Khan
Location: Pakistan 
Languages: Urdu/English (English)
Dedicated website:  http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/rebelarchitecture/
A TRADITIONAL FUTURE http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/rebelarchitecture/2014/06/pakistan-traditional-future-201462911924137552.html
Links: Heritage Foundation http://www.heritagefoundationpak.org/

This article originally published in Livegreenblog

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