Biography
Sahar Qawasmi (b. 1977, Kuwait City) is an architect, restorer, organiser and forager as well as the co-founder and director of Sakiya, an international residency programme and research platform in Ramallah, Palestine. She has extensive experience in the rehabilitation of Palestine’s architectural heritage through restoration, strategic planning and collaborative cross-disciplinary cultural programmes. Qawasmi has designed, organised and documented walking trails between historic centres, refugee camps and natural sites in the West Bank. She has been working with artists, farmers and activists to revive historical buildings as well as restore dilapidated or marginal urban spaces and natural areas to rethink political and social agency and the space of the commons. Qawasmi negotiates and experiments with different forms and methodologies of architectural and cultural practices outside of institutional and academic structures. She is a founding member and the chair of the board of directors of the Arab Forum for Sexual Rights and Reproductive Health in Ramallah.