The article is from A&B issue 9|23
She used to build edifices for state institutions. Today she fulfills herself by helping Pakistan's poorest men and women create homes and lift themselves out of extreme poverty. She stigmatizes the use of concrete and promotes local, traditional technologies. Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan's first-ever female architect, is restoring faith in architecture. And human beings.
In a world of Zahas, be Yasmeen
The world of grand architecture has long since become "aflying circus of a dozen starchitects suffering from chronic jet-lag" (Deyan Sudjic). A designer's name is a brand, a brand that we display like a Gucci logo embroidered with gold thread on a tisket sewn in a Far Eastern sweatshop. Striking buildings, whose professionally taken photographs delight readers of online architecture portals, are like clothes with an exclusive label. They are either a huge stadium in the desert built by Bangladeshi laborers working in conditions that violate fundamental human rights, or "glass towers" of despots who don't give a damn about the democratic values espoused by the European designers they hire.
Yasmeen Lari's own home in Karachi betrays strong inspirations from Western modernism and brutalism
photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Thearchitectural arms race (or Starchitecture Wars) continues at its best, with projects like the linear city of Neom in Saudi Arabia proving that there are no limits to human hubris. Meanwhile, in 2023, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awarded the Royal Gold Medal to Pakistani-born Yasmeen Lari, thereby sending a clear message to architects - in Zah's world, try to be Yasmeen.
Born in 1941 in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan, the designer has come a long way, becoming successively her country's first female architect, president of the Pakistan Institute of Architects, and a member of the RIBA. Above all, however, she has never forgotten the social mission that a representative of her profession should fulfill.
difficult (?) beginnings
During the period that Lari describes as "being a starchitect," her work was heavily influenced by Western architecture; pictured: Pakistan State Oil House in Karachi
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
"I'm not sure that becoming the first female architect in Pakistan was as difficult as it may seem, given the status of women in my country," - Yasmeen Lari tells us. She adds, "If you come from a privileged background, this problem is not so significant because you have a support system." In Lari's case, that system was family. His father, Zafarul Ahsan, an employee of the Indian Civil Service, was involved in many construction projects in Lahore and other cities. In 1956, he and his family moved to the UK, where Lari began studying at Oxford's School of Architecture.
In 1964, the newly minted architect returned to her homeland with her husband, Sukhail Zaheer Lari, a Pakistani historian she had met in Britain. Together they established the office Lari Associates. The designer emphasizes that her husband's support was crucial to her development. "In those days, not many women worked professionally," she says. - recounts Lari, adding that her countrywomen could at best choose a career as a doctor or teacher. She was more fortunate. She was able to do what she wanted, thanks to the support of her family and, above all, her husband. She designed public edifices, in which she combined the European experience of late modernism with local elements (Taj Mahal Hotel in Karachi, 1981). She eagerly drew on solutions derived from the principles of structuralism (Financial and Commercial Center in Karachi, 1989) or the aesthetics of brutalism, exposing raw concrete in the dynamic massing of her own house in Karachi (1982). When the modern movement began to give way to postmodern tendencies in the West, it was Lari who introduced new trends into Pakistani architecture (Pakistan State Oil House in Karachi, 1985-1991).
The Angoori Bagh community settlement was the first of its kind in Pakistan, and for the designer, Yasmeen Lari, the first project based on participation and cooperation with future users
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Outstanding achievements have not made Yasmeen Lari forget what the word "modesty" means. "If I compare myself to female architects in the West who are of a similar age, it seems to me that they have faced more difficulties than I have," she confesses. - This may seem strange, but I believe it was so. Working in a Third World country allows you to do a lot of things because almost everything is missing. There are many issues and problems, and you can only wonder" which ones to solve first.
understand ordinary life
After returning to her home country, Lari had to "unlearn" many things. The knowledge she took from Oxford often proved useless in Pakistan, and the architect was confronted with problems that Western European designers had not even dreamed of. Wanting the fruits of her labor to best serve the Pakistani people, she had to reacquaint herself with her country and the people who inhabit it. Together with her husband, she embarked on a journey through places she had never seen before. As someone who came from a privileged social class (as she herself openly mentions), Lari had "never experienced ordinary life." She had never been able to visit old towns on her own, to talk to their inhabitants. Meanwhile, it was there, in the local heritage and traditions, rather than in the walls of Oxford, that she found the truth about architecture.
The foundation on which Yasmeen Lari "builds" is empathy - understanding the needy and respecting their preferences are key, so the architect gives future users the freedom to shape and decorate the buildings; pictured: Zero Carbon Cultural Center (ZC3), Makli in Sindh province
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
In the early 1970s, Punjab authorities approached Yasmeen Lari with a proposal to create an estate for low- and middle-income families. The architect designed Angoori Bagh, a complex of 787 apartments arranged as two- and three-story segments arranged around narrow streets and squares. They were built using inexpensive local materials and undemanding technology. However, she held many consultations with future users before starting work. And where will the chickens go? - asked someone during one of the meetings. Lari then talked about the outdoor terraces located on different levels. "That's where the chickens will romp, the vegetables will grow, and the kids will play under your watchful gaze," she said.
architect barefoot
"I feel like I'm repenting for some of the things I've done," admits Yasmeen Lari and explains: - I was a starchitect for thirty-six years, but my selfish journey has come to an end. The right to good designs is not reserved for the elite." That well-designed objects and spaces should be accessible to all has been said by many, from William Morris to Le Corbusier. Each time, however, the result was similar - well-designed and solidly built houses or furniture cost so much that only the richest could afford them. Beautiful slogans remained empty slogans.
A one-room house for the most needy built by the hands of future residents, using cheap local materials - Makli, Sindh province
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Things are different with Yasmeen Lari. She has descended from the heights of "great architecture" to the very bottom - where no one talks about the golden division or Corbusier's five principles. Where the problem is the pain of eyes reddened from hearth smoke and the lack of running water. Where one goes barefoot, because shoes are a luxury, and the primary building and finishing material remains, unchanged for hundreds of years, sun-dried clay.
It is from clay and lime plaster that Pakistan's chulah stoves, which Lari designed as an alternative to the traditional hearths at which women in rural areas of Pakistan prepare their meals, are made. Launched in 2014 by the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan (an organization founded in 1980 by Yasmeen Lari and her husband), the project involved educating Pakistani women who could make and decorate the stove with their own hands. In turn, this one is energy efficient and doesn't belch noxious smoke right in your face. That's as important as the fact that the construction is done by women. "We are gradually educating them," - says the architect. Changing the world is a long process. Each step must be taken with care. Lari is aware of the responsibility shecarries: "It's a slow process, but I think it has to be done in such a way that men don't feel excluded or threatened. We don't want conflict."
I'm just their collaborator," declares Yasmeen Lari, pointing to Pakistani women as the authors of individual objects; pictured: making bricks from sun-dried clay
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
design and empathy
Yasmeen Lari was already in well-deserved retirement when a powerful earthquake struck Kashmir in 2005. She immediately rushed to help, as did most Pakistanis. Admittedly, she had no significant financial resources or project office. Only experience gained from decades of practice and a great deal of empathy. The latter proved crucial, for an architect must first and foremost know how to listen.
At first the local communities treated Lari as a visitor from another world. With time, they became convinced to cooperate. They created silt structures together, which the architect improved by adding waterproof limestone and a bamboo frame. As a result, the new structures did not break with local tradition, but only improved upon it.
A community pavilion in Makli, Sindh province - education and dissemination of knowledge are as important to Yasmeen Lari as building
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Lari's sensitivity is on full display when she begins to talk about helping the poorest. Outraged, she protests against the Western model of charity, which she believes destroys self-respect. She cites a project involving the construction of shelters for several hundred disadvantaged people (Green Shelters program) as a positive example. By starting the construction of low-cost houses (made of clay, bamboo and lime plaster), it was possible not only to provide the needy with a roof over their heads, but also to teach them a specific profession and show them new opportunities to function in society.
Pakistani women during the construction of a kiln....
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
all I do is cooperate
Pakistan'sfirst female architect declares without a shadow of hesitation that her most satisfying achievement is the work she does with the poor and excluded. It's not public edifices or her own home of exquisite modernist design, but structures made of river silt and bamboo that make Yasmeen Lari proud. She emphasizes their cultural and ecological dimensions - they fit into the traditionally established landscape, are accepted by the local community and leave a minimal carbon footprint. "I don't use cement or steel at all. It is not needed. This is my current mission," he declares.
A community pavilion in Makli, Sindh province - education and spreading knowledge are as important to Yasmeen Lari as building
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Concern for the environment and concern for people go hand in hand. The Lari Foundation has developed a program described by the architect herself as "barefoot social architecture" to help the impoverished province of Sindh. Again, as in many previous cases, education and the identification of new opportunities made it possible not only to provide the most elementary needs (a roof over one's head), but also to get out of extreme poverty.
Pakistani women during the construction of a stove....
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
"Everything I do is a collaboration, so I should not be called the author of my works," - says Yasmeen Lari. In a reality shaped by the swelling egos of architects and builders, where aesthetics replace ethics, her words restore faith in what design really should be.
Pakistani women during the construction of a kiln....
Photo: © Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Błażej Ciarkowski
The quoted statements by Professor Yasmeen Lari are from:
