Yasmeen Lari, Green Architect

The True Story of Pakistan's First Woman Architect

written by Marzieh Abbas
illustrated by Hoda Hadadi

Review posted January 20, 2025.
Clarion Books (HarperCollins), 2024. 40 pages.
Review written January 13, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

I've gotten used to high-quality picture book biographies, so I tend to resist reviewing them unless that are something extra-special. This book features the life of Yasmeen Lari, who not only was Pakistan's first female architect, she also is a pioneer in the use of sustainable and low-cost materials that withstand floods and earthquakes.

This picture book has wonderful art, using colorful collage techniques to show the structures Yasmeen created and studied. As a child, she lived through Partition and saw the creation of Pakistan as its own country. Her father was an architect, and she followed in his footsteps. But the book shows how, after her success as an architect, she became a force for conservation and restoration of historic buildings. And then after catastrophic floods and earthquakes, she looked at the way those historic buildings had lasted centuries and used the ideas to help rebuild.

Yasmeen designed and sketched.

For the earthquake-prone areas, she suggested bamboo crisscrossing lattice sandwiching mud-lime brick walls from ground to ceiling.

For the flood-prone areas, she proposed hexagonal structures of mud-lime brick walls to be positioned on bamboo stilts, eight feet high.

The book shows her making prototypes for durable, low cost, zero carbon, zero waste buildings.

Yasmeen had an idea - cocreation!

She would train the poverty-stricken villagers to build their own houses.

Then they would travel to other villages and train more villagers.

In this way, she was responsible for building over 40,000 disaster-resistant homes.

The back matter has photos of this remarkable woman, who is still living, and her work. I am happy to have learned about her, and am glad for this book so kids will learn about someone who excelled in her profession, and then used that excellence to make the world a better place for many more.