Yasmeen Lari

Since her official retirement from architectural practice in 2000, her UN-recognized NGO Heritage Foundation Pakistan has been taking on humanitarian relief work and historical conservation projects in rural villages all around Pakistan. She was awarded the prestigious Fukuoka Prize in 2016 and the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in 2023.

Yasmeen Lari studied at School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is architecture, architectural project and sustainable architecture. Distinctions recorded are Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Jane Drew Prize, Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize and Royal Gold Medal.

Yasmeen Lari was born in 1941 in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan, and spent her early years in and around Lahore. Her father Zafarul Ahsan, an Indian Civil Service officer, was working on major development projects in Lahore and other cities, through which Lari was exposed to architecture. Her sister is Pakistani politician Nasreen Jalil. When she was 15 years old, she first left Pakistan to go to London with her family. Initially there for a vacation, she and her siblings ended up enrolling in school in London. Upon her rejection from architecture school, Yasmeen Lari studied two years of arts in London before being accepted into the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University (previously named Oxford Polytechnic).

After graduating from the Oxford School of Architecture in 1964, Lari returned to Pakistan at age 23 with her husband, Suhail Zaheer Lari, and opened her architecture firm Lari Associates in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. She became the first female architect in Pakistan. Initially, she faced difficulties when workers at construction sites challenged her authority or knowledge because of her gender. In 1969, Lari became an elected Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Her later projects included housing such as the Angoori Bagh Housing (ABH) (1978), and commercial buildings such as the Taj Mahal Hotel, Karachi in 1981, the Finance and Trade Center in 1989, and the Pakistan State Oil House (PSO Company headquarters) in Karachi in 1991. Lari retired in 2000 from architectural practice. However, she remains active with her historical preservation by serving as the advisor of the UNESCO project, as the executive director of Heritage Foundation Pakistan, and as the chairperson of the Karavan Initiatives.

Lari and her husband founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, a humanitarian group in 1980. Since 2010, she has built some 50,000 Pakistani homes for humanitarian causes, such as for the victims of earthquakes and flooding. Lari implements traditional building techniques and local materials, such as in the 2013 rebuilding after floods in the Sindh Valley region of Pakistan and, again in that area in 2023, building low-cost, sustainable, bamboo and mud-plastered, one room homes or chauhras. In 2013, she helped villagers in Awaran District who were hit by the 2013 Balochistan earthquake. In 2018, Lari designed a fuel-efficient and affordable chulah (stove) that improved on traditional stoves and did not emit toxic smoke into Pakistani homes. Her stove design won her a World Habitat award that same year. Yasmeen Lari is one of the founders and current chairwoman of the Pakistani Chapter of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU), created in 2018.

Khairpur Heritage Centre Sethi house in Sethi Mohallah (2010–2012)

Yasmeen Lari lives in Karachi, Pakistan. She was married to Suhail Zaheer Lari who died in 2020 due to COVID-19. She has three children.