Wed
16
Apr
Seminars and Conferences
Lecture 5: Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari | Reclaming Ruins, Challenging Colonial Emptiness
The A+ Lectures 2025 – Critical Unboxing. Projects and Processes offer a multidisciplinary perspective on architecture, exploring its processes, ideas, and narratives through the contributions of international experts.
This initiative, coordinated by Professor Cristina Coscia, is promoted by the College of Architecture and Design and the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD). Originally conceived within the Master’s Degree Program in Architecture Construction City (ACC), it has now expanded to include all Master’s Degree Programs within the Department. It is open to all Master’s students as well as final-year students of the Bachelor’s Degree Programs at the College of Architecture and Design.
Five years after their debut in 2020, the ACC Master Lectures have evolved into A+ Lectures, a transformation that reflects the program’s growth and its ambition to broaden its scope. The 2025 edition of A+ Lectures revolves around the concept of Critical Unboxing, reinterpreting the idea of "unpacking" not just as an act applied to objects but to architecture itself. In design and architecture, a box can be a container, a text, or a built form. However, a critical unboxing is not merely about revealing a final product; it is an act of unveiling that brings to light the processes, logics, and meanings that often remain hidden. This edition proposes a fresh approach to architectural narration, transforming each lecture into an opportunity to investigate and decipher what usually remains invisible.
The fifth event of A+ Lectures 2025 will feature Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari, introduced by Professor Tomà Berlanda, with a lecture titled: Reclaming Ruins, Challenging Colonial Emptiness.
The event is scheduled for April 16 2025, from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm in Room 1V at the Lingotto campus of the Politecnico di Torino.
Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari are UK-based architects and academics whose work challenges dominant architectural paradigms.
Sharif explores design as a tool to rethink contested landscapes, reimagining architectural practice beyond colonial power structures and hierarchical knowledge production. She advocates for an alternative, inclusive architectural and spatial language. Golzari calls for architectural approaches that challenge Western dominance, drawing inspiration from the daily rituals, narratives, and passive environmental practices of the Global South. Through research, design, and pedagogy, he seeks to reclaim and celebrate what he calls "the invisible other." Together, they co-founded the Palestine Regeneration Team (PART), a design-led research collective that explores creative and responsive spatial interventions in fragmented landscapes.
More recently, they co-founded Architects for Gaza, bringing together architects, educators, planners, environmentalists, and designers to respond to the ongoing spaciocide in Gaza, aiming to heal its fractured landscape. Their work has received numerous accolades, including the RIBA President’s Award for Research and the Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction in the MENA region.
Lecture recordings will be available on the APlus YouTube channel.
For more information and updates on A+ Lectures, visit the official page.
This initiative, coordinated by Professor Cristina Coscia, is promoted by the College of Architecture and Design and the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD). Originally conceived within the Master’s Degree Program in Architecture Construction City (ACC), it has now expanded to include all Master’s Degree Programs within the Department. It is open to all Master’s students as well as final-year students of the Bachelor’s Degree Programs at the College of Architecture and Design.
Five years after their debut in 2020, the ACC Master Lectures have evolved into A+ Lectures, a transformation that reflects the program’s growth and its ambition to broaden its scope. The 2025 edition of A+ Lectures revolves around the concept of Critical Unboxing, reinterpreting the idea of "unpacking" not just as an act applied to objects but to architecture itself. In design and architecture, a box can be a container, a text, or a built form. However, a critical unboxing is not merely about revealing a final product; it is an act of unveiling that brings to light the processes, logics, and meanings that often remain hidden. This edition proposes a fresh approach to architectural narration, transforming each lecture into an opportunity to investigate and decipher what usually remains invisible.
The fifth event of A+ Lectures 2025 will feature Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari, introduced by Professor Tomà Berlanda, with a lecture titled: Reclaming Ruins, Challenging Colonial Emptiness.
The event is scheduled for April 16 2025, from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm in Room 1V at the Lingotto campus of the Politecnico di Torino.
Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari are UK-based architects and academics whose work challenges dominant architectural paradigms.
Sharif explores design as a tool to rethink contested landscapes, reimagining architectural practice beyond colonial power structures and hierarchical knowledge production. She advocates for an alternative, inclusive architectural and spatial language. Golzari calls for architectural approaches that challenge Western dominance, drawing inspiration from the daily rituals, narratives, and passive environmental practices of the Global South. Through research, design, and pedagogy, he seeks to reclaim and celebrate what he calls "the invisible other." Together, they co-founded the Palestine Regeneration Team (PART), a design-led research collective that explores creative and responsive spatial interventions in fragmented landscapes.
More recently, they co-founded Architects for Gaza, bringing together architects, educators, planners, environmentalists, and designers to respond to the ongoing spaciocide in Gaza, aiming to heal its fractured landscape. Their work has received numerous accolades, including the RIBA President’s Award for Research and the Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction in the MENA region.
Lecture recordings will be available on the APlus YouTube channel.
For more information and updates on A+ Lectures, visit the official page.