Yasmeen Lari wins Lisbon Triennale Achievement Award for pioneering humanitarian architecture

Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari has been awarded the 2025 Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Achievement Award, recognizing her six-decade career dedicated to socially and environmentally conscious architecture. The Lisbon Architecture Triennale announced the honor ahead of its 2025 edition, which will run from the 2nd to the 4th of October.

Lari, born in 1941 and Pakistan’s first female architect, trained in the UK before establishing a successful practice in Karachi. Since retiring from conventional practice in 2000, Lari has shifted her focus toward humanitarian work through the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan. Lari's efforts center on vernacular, low-carbon, and disaster-resilient construction methods.

Following the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and the 2022 floods, Lari gained international attention for her commitment to “humanistic humanitarian action.” Lari pledged to help build over one million climate-resilient homes without relying on donors or external aid, guided by her “four zeros” approach: zero carbon, zero waste, zero donors, and zero poverty.

The award, which includes a trophy designed by Álvaro Siza and crafted from recycled marble, will be presented during the Triennale’s opening days, where Lari will also deliver a public lecture.

“Architecture has to change if it wants to remain relevant,” Lari said in a statement after the award was announced. “Our work is not something only for the rich; poor communities all over the world need good design, because it is of even greater value to them. That’s why I think my job is to rebuild lives: to create ‘poverty escape-ladders’ by losing control of the process through co-building and co-creation. We do this by sharing knowledge and mobilising villages – one village at a time.”

The Triennale also announced the finalists for its Début Award, which recognizes emerging studios. The 2025 shortlist comprises Bangkok Tokyo Architecture (Thailand), Palma (Mexico), ReSa Architects (India), Robida Collective (Italy), and TEN (Switzerland). The studios were selected from 75 eligible entries worldwide and will present their work during the event, where the winner will be revealed.

The awards jury includes Inês Lobo, Lígia Nobre, Samia Henni, Sandi Hilal, and Yuma Shinohara. The Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Awards programme comprises three categories: Achievement, Début, and Universities, celebrating innovation in both academic and professional architecture.

“As a jury, we must acknowledge that we stand at a historical juncture—witnessing genocide in Gaza and wars in Congo, Ukraine, and so many other places in the world, while life for many continues as usual,” the jury said in a statement announcing the shortlist. “In light of this contradiction, we must ask: What position do we take? How will history judge our choices?”

“We, the members of the jury, choose to recognize architectural practices that create spaces for life: practices that foster dignity, community, and grounded ways of co-existing,” the jury added. “We must resist imposing a singular standard and instead support the diversity of architectural responses across different contexts. The submitted applications make clear that many young architects are shifting away from traditional models towards collective and decentralized practices, which respond to contemporary challenges in heartening ways. We also recognize a commitment to fostering existing structures of resilience, instead of an obsession with the “new.” Architects working in challenging political, social, economic, and environmental realities require different forms of acknowledgement.”

“Architecture’s role in creating spaces for life has never been more urgent,” the statement concludes. “At a time when power is increasingly concentrated among the few, we uplift architects who use their practice to re-exist, reimagine, and resist.”