Yasmeen Lari Turns Down Wolf Prize
RIBA Gold Medalist Yasmeen Lari has turned down the 2025 Wolf Prize, awarded by the Israel-based not-for-profit Wolf Foundation, citing the ongoing conflict in Gaza as her reason for doing so. The Foundation is yet to comment on Lari’s decision.
The Wolf Prize is a worldwide accolade presented in Israel since 1978, recognizing living scientists and artists for their contributions to humanity and fostering amicable relations. The award is given in six categories: agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics, and an art prize that alternates among architecture, music, painting, and sculpture.
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The Wolf Foundation announced 2025’s award recipients on March 10. This list included Yasmeen Lari. In an Instagram post made on March 11 expressed gratitude to the jury and the foundation for the nomination but chose to reject the award along with its accompanying prize of $100,000.
In the open letter, Yasmeen Lari notes, “While I am immensely grateful for this honour, alas, given the unfortunate continuing genocide in Gaza, I am not able to accept the award and the prize money even from an organisation that is independent of the government. All violence is unacceptable to me on any side of a conflict and I’ve spent much of my life helping refugees, albeit climate migrants, and Gaza is unfortunately now one of the worst situations in terms of displacement.”
In a statement given to Arab News, she notes, “I declined the award because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a reason I explicitly stated in my response to them. Given the current situation in Gaza, accepting the award was out of the question,”
With Yasmeen Lari’s refusal, Chinese architect Xu Tiantian of DNA – Design and Architecture remains the sole recipient among architects this year to win the award. Notable architects to have won the award include Frank Gehry, Álvaro Siza, Jean Nouvel, and David Chipperfield.
Yasmeen Lari Art and Architecture
Yasmeen Lari’s art and architecture are celebrated worldwide for her eco-friendly and socially responsible architecture. In 1980, she co-founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which is currently focused on creating one million flood-resilient on-room homes in Pakistan. She has built over 50,000 sustainable self-constructed homes and more than 80,000 ecological cooking stoves using natural materials such as mud, lime, and bamboo.
A philanthrope at heart, she has constantly promoted the idea that traditional building methods can result in low-impact, carbon-neutral structures. Her efforts in preserving Karachi’s heritage are well recognized. Yasmeen Lari’s book The Dual City: Karachi During the Raj, published by Oxford University Press in 1996, is an influential piece on the city’s colonial past, its architecture, and its inhabitants.
Yasmeen Lari is the first female architect of Pakistan, making her the first Pakistani woman to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal in 2023.
Image Courtesy – The Architects’ Journal
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