Yara Sharif

Yara Sharif
Alma mater
Years active2007–present
SpouseNasser Golzari

Yara Sharif is a Palestinian architect and Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster. Her work has earned a number of accolades, including a Holcim Foundation Award and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. She frequently collaborates with Nasser Golzari and Murray Fraser.

Early life

Sharif graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) from Birzeit University.[1] She went on to complete a Masters in Architecture, a Graduate Certificate of Education, and a PhD at the University of Westminster. Sharif's PhD thesis was commended for the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis.[2]

Career

Sharif began her career working as a Senior Partner for Nasser Golzari's firm NG Architects. She co-founded the Palestine Regeneration Team (PART) with him and Murray Fraser. Sharif and Golzari's five-year work revitalizing Birzeit Historic Centre, led by Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, won the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.[3] For their work on a women's centre and playground in Beit Iksa, Sharif and her colleagues won the Acknowledgement Prize at the 2014 Holcim Foundation Awards for Sustainable Construction.[4]

In 2012, Sharif joined Oxford Brookes University as a Lecturer. In 2015, she returned to the University of Westminster as a Senior Lecturer.[5] Sharif, Golzari and Fraser received a nod at 2016 the RIBA President's Awards for Research in the Cities and Community category.[6]

Sharif and Golzari reunited with Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation to present Secrets of a Digital Garden: 50 flowers, 50 villages at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial.[7]

At the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Sharif and Golzari displayed their mixed-media installation titled The Power of the Invisibles. The pair started the initiative Architects for Gaza (AFG).[8][9] By December 2023, "hundreds" of professionals in the field had signed a statement in support of Gaza, and by the following year, the initiative had developed a "series of collaborative architectural responses".[10] At the 2024 London Festival of Architecture, Architects for Gaza displayed a proposed Experimental Lab/Clinic to provide primary care in Gaza.[11] Also in 2024, AFG launched the Gaza Global University offering virtual education to the displaced people of Gaza.[12] Commissioned by the British Council, at the 2025 Venice Biennale, PART presented Objects of Repair as part of the British pavilion's Geology of Britannic Repair exhibition.[10]

Personal life

Sharif and Golzari are married.[13]

Bibliography

Monograph

  • Architecture of Resistance: Cultivating Moments of Possibility (2017)

Chapters

  • "Surface, Air, Underground" in Reclaiming Space: The 50 Villages project in rural Palestine (2015), edited by Kaldun Bshara and Suad Amiry
  • "Searching for Sub-Urban Bridges in the Village of Beit Iksa, Jerusalem" in The Social (Re)Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice (2017), with N Golzari, edited by Doina Petrescu and Kim Trogal
  • "Absurd-City, Subver-City" in Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope (2020), with N Golzari, edited by Michael Sorkin and Deen Sharp
  • "'A scarf, a sewage pipe and a settler: On tactics, X-ray, and the right to opacity" in The Gaze of the X-Ray: An Archive of Violence (2024), edited by Shahram Kosravi

Articles

  • "Towards an Invisible Ideology: Rethinking the Spatio-political Conditions of Palestine under Israeli Domination" in Propositions: Ideology in Transparency (2009) for the Architectural Association
  • "Reclaiming space and identity: heritage-led regeneration in Palestine" in The Journal of Architecture (2011), with N Golzari
  • "Landscape of Time and Immobilit" in Landscape Research (2019)
  • "Soft Tactics: On liberating the mental space" in Journal of Visual Culture (2021)

Accolades

References

  1. ^ "برنامج التعليم والاحتلال والتحرير". Fobzu (in Arabic). Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  2. ^ a b Rosenfield, Karissa (22 October 2013). "RIBA Announces President's Awards for Research 2013". ArchDaily. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b Bremner, Lindsay (17 September 2013). "Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif's work in Birzeit for Riwaq wins Aga Khan Award". Open Research Westminster. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  4. ^ a b ""Sustainability? Self-sufficiency and local knowledge" – Yara Sharif & Nasser Golzari". Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  5. ^ "Dr Yara Sharif". University of Westminster. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  6. ^ a b "RIBA President's Awards For Research 2016". RIBA. 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  7. ^ Heathcote, Edwin (16 October 2019). "Chicago's Architecture Biennial is a radical take on tough themes". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  8. ^ Zambeletti, Federica (14 November 2023). "A Foot on the Earth and a Hand in the Sky: Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari on rebuilding Gaza". KoozArch. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  9. ^ Fadel, Leila (2 February 2024). "Palestinian architect says the destruction must become part of Gaza's reconstruction". NPR. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  10. ^ a b Akerman, Iain (12 July 2025). "Architects at Venice Biennale challenge Israel's culture of erasure". Al Majalla. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  11. ^ Hahn, Jennifer (17 July 2024). "Architects for Gaza creates fragments of demountable clinic for Gaza". Dezeen. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  12. ^ Peacock, Amy (18 March 2024). "Architects for Gaza plans to deliver free education to architecture students in Gaza". Dezeen. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  13. ^ Dunmall, Giovanna (12 April 2024). "After Gaza's 'urbicide', how do you rebuild before there's nothing left to return to?". The National. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
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