DOHA (The Thursday Times) — A bamboo community centre by the Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari is one of the standout pieces in a major architecture exhibition in Doha, which brings together the work of more than 40 architects and practices from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
The exhibition, Beyti Beytak – My Home Is Your Home, was opened on October 25 by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums, and runs until May 29, 2027. It is housed in Fahad bin Ali Palace, a 1953 landmark next to the Amiri Diwan that has been opened to the public for the first time. The show is an expanded version of Qatar’s first official presentation at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025.
Lari’s Community Centre, designed in 2024, is built from bamboo, with a veranda running around it and a dome topped with a waterproof palm-frond roof. It draws on techniques used by the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which Lari co-founded in 1980 and which has built shelters and villages for people hit by the 2005 earthquake and repeated floods.
The exhibition’s co-curator, Aurélien Lemonier of the future Art Mill Museum, has compared her work with that of the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy. “Like him, she empowers the poor to build their own futures,” he said. Lari also sits on the exhibition’s scientific committee.
Work by the Pakistani architect Nayyar Ali Dada is also on show, alongside pioneers such as Hassan Fathy, Balkrishna Doshi, Rifat Chadirji and Geoffrey Bawa. The exhibition is split into seven sections and includes models, drawings, films and archive material.
A public programme for schools, universities and families, with craft demonstrations in weaving, dyeing and storytelling, runs until May 2027. Lari, often described as Pakistan’s first woman architect, received the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal in 2023.
