House on a Budget: From a Discussion with Yasmin Lari

In this pragmatic 2-page article from SHE Volume VIII, No. 8, October 1, 1970, Pakistan’s “leading woman architect” Yasmin Lari proposes solutions for building affordable housing for middle income families. Qualified architects in Pakistan are few and are afforded limited professional visibility by their patron organizations. Meanwhile, architects have often under-quoted budgets to clients and avoided building smaller houses due to lower profit margins. Likewise, clients also fail to see architects as decision-makers – and often impose their “preconceived ideas” on the making process. 

The article’s provision of solution-oriented approaches to tackling these problems is worthy of remembrance: Lari suggests creating a “Type Design” where a series of economical plans may be chosen by a client after paying architects a royalty fee. She urges for rigorous building processes including soil and property examinations, merging dining and living areas, and selecting appropriate colours. Lari presents a case study of a home she built for a government officer with a large family. Her design optimized space with the country’s first-ever built-in furniture feature, fewer inner walls, adequate ventilation, and use of appropriate materials, also reduced the building costs.

Source: LSE Library