Yasmin Shariff (born in 1956 in Uganda) is a Ugandan-born British architect, environmentalist and university professor, known for her defence of gender equality in the field of architecture. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Yasmin Shariff was born to Indian parents in Uganda, East Africa, in 1956 when Uganda was still a British protectorate. She spent her childhood between Hampshire in the United Kingdom and Nairobi until finally settling in Hertfordshire in 1977. [2] [5] She studied and graduated in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture (Faculty of the Built Environment) at University College London. Before that, Shariff had completed a master's degree in Archaeology in 1981 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. [6]
In 1983, she married architect Dennis Sharp (1933–2010), with whom she had a son, Deen, and the family then moved to Epping, Essex. [6]
In addition to working as an architect in firms such as Populous, Pringle Brandon (Perkins and Will) and Jestico & Whiles, Shariff has also been a university professor for more than a decade at the University of Westminster. She is currently a board member of the firm Dennis Sharp Architects, which she joined in 1992. She has held the position of Honorary Secretary of the Chair of AA and AA XX 100[ clarification needed ], as well as conducting education consultancy at Eric Parry Architects.
She has participated in projects such as Aspenden Lodge (2007–2009); the renovation of Norman Foster's Renault factory in Swindon (2006–2008); the Luton Community Center (2005), the Eco-Home, Bayford (2005–2009); the Strawdance Dance Studio; and the Community Environmental Project (1999). She worked on the Trinity Bridge project in Manchester (1994–95), where she worked with the architect Santiago Calatrava. [6] [7] [8] [9]