Sahar Qawasmi (Palestine)
Sahar Qawasmi
is a Palestinian architect (born 1977 in Kuwait). Raised between Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan, she returned to her roots in Palestine and went on to study architecture at Birzeit University close to Ramallah/Palestine. After graduating, she joined the team at Riwaq-Center for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah. In 2005, she was granted the Fulbright Scholarship and received her MA in architecture from Miami University, Oxford OH/USA where she was awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Award in 2007.
As an architect at Riwaq, she is working on the rehabilitation of historic buildings in rural Palestine and coordinates a cultural program that promotes and celebrates Palestinian heritage and architecture. She worked on various projects, including adaptive reuse design/building projects at Miami University Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, low-income housing projects with Pyatok Architects Inc. in Oakland. She was also involved with public art projects at Rebar Art & Design Studio in San Francisco. In 2012, she coordinated the 4th Riwaq Biennale, a platform for networking and dialog between architects, artists, and the community at large and Qalandiya International (QI) in its first take. QI focused on promoting Palestinian culture and exhibiting contemporary Palestinian and international art, highlighting valuable architectural sites and allowing the local public to be engaged with art in a more imaginative and open manner.
During her residency she will be invited to participate in international and interdisciplinary exhibition KURZ / DUST / غبار , which has been initiated in the framework of Re-Directing: East project organized at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.
