Yara Sharif

Yara Sharif is a Palestinian architect and academic. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster and a senior partner at NG Architects, London. Her work has earned a number of accolades, including a Holcim Foundation Award and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Early life Sharif graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) from Birzeit University. She went on to complete a Masters in Architecture, a Graduate Certificate of Education PGCert, and a PhD by Design PhD at the University of Westminster.She also obtained her RIBA PART3 qualification from the University of Westminster. Sharif's PhD thesis was commended for the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis.

Career Sharif is 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 work on revitalizing Birzeit Historic Centre, led by Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, won the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. 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.

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

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.

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). 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". Also in 2024, AFG launched the Gaza Global University offering virtual education to the displaced people of Gaza. 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.