The Royal Institute of British Architects (IREB) announced that 82-year-old Professor Yasmine Lari won the 2023 Royal Gold Award, becoming the second woman to win this award after Iraqi-British Zaha Hadid.
The victory of Larry, who is known as Pakistan's first female architect, comes for her influence on the engineering and humanitarian scale.
The Royal Gold Medal is one of the world's most prestigious architecture awards to be personally endorsed by the King and will be officially handed over to Lari in June this year.
The Royal Institute said in a press release: "Larry has always been a revolutionary force in Pakistan. She has an immeasurable impact on architecture and humanitarian work in the country, with a long and illustrious career in which her work defends the concepts of carbon-free self-construction of displaced populations, natural disasters and climate change."
Professor Yasmeen Lari, will receive the 2023 Royal Gold Medal for architecture 🏅
Personally approved by His Majesty The King, the award acknowledges Lari’s work championing zero-carbon self-build concepts for displaced populations: https://t.co/j19sRfLDUH #RIBAawards pic.twitter.com/lpbYcsZNt5
— RIBA (@RIBA) April 27, 2023
"Larry officially retired in 2000, and her focus has been on humanitarian issues ever since. Together with her husband Suhail Zahir, she established the Pakistan Heritage Foundation. Together, they tackled the impact of natural disasters, earthquakes, floods and conflicts on people in Pakistan, creating simple and affordable architectural designs from available materials to meet their core needs."
Larry has built shelters and thousands of sustainable housing, and is best known for designing a stove that is an ecological alternative to a traditional stove that significantly reduces emissions, and addresses the unfavorable environmental and health issues associated with it by cooking over open fire.
"I was really surprised to hear this news and of course I am pleased with it. I never imagined that by focusing on the most marginalized people in my country and venturing into unknown paths, I could still be nominated for the highest honours in architecture."
"With her focus on humanitarian issues, Yasmine showed us how architecture can change life for the better," the president of the Royal Institute said in the press release.
Writer and architect Sumita Singha said, "It's great to know that Yasmine Lari will receive the 2023 Royal Gold Medal. She is a brave and inspiring woman, whom I mentioned in a book of mine to be published in November."
Great to hear that Yasmeen Lari is to receive the Royal Gold Medal @RIBA for 2023. She is such a brave and inspirational woman! She features in my upcoming book, Thrive, to be published in November. pic.twitter.com/agbM3XjNoK
— Sumita Singha 💙 (@Autotelic_Arch) April 27, 2023
Journalist Zoffin Ibrahim tweeted: "Many in Pakistan have not heard the news, but those who have learned are still skeptical. But what is certain is that all over the world, the work of Yasmin Lari is highly regarded."
Many in Pakistan are unaware, those who know remain sceptical. But around the world, Yasmeen Lari's work is very well recognised. Something seems right. Yesterday she was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for architecture for her zero-carbon, self-build houses for displaced people. pic.twitter.com/cBg4zMDA8u
— Zofeen Ebrahim (@zofeen28) April 27, 2023
The Gold Award is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the King, recognising the individual or group for a significant contribution to the field of global architecture.
Throughout its history, the Royal Gold Award has been won by many famous architects, with Charles Robert Cockerelf being the first winners in 1848, most notably Sir Gilbert Scott Giles in 1925, Frank Lloyd Wright in 1941 and Le Corbusier in 1953.
In 2015, Iraqi-British engineer Zaha Hadid became the first woman to receive the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture.
Who is Jasmine Larry?
Larry graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 1963. She became President of the Institute of Architects of Pakistan in 1978 and the first President of the Pakistan Council of Architects and City Planners (PCATP) in 1983.
Her architectural firm has designed some of the country's most iconic projects, until she retired in 2000 to focus on heritage preservation and humanistic architecture.
Lari has preserved buildings in Makli and Lahore Fort (both World Heritage Sites) as well as 19th-century British colonial buildings in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. She was included in the list of 60 women who contributed the most to the achievement of UNESCO's goals.