Yasmeen Lari retired from her architectural practice in 2000, having been part of designing Pakistan’s most iconic projects during a distinguished career as the country’s first female architect. She once referred to it ruefully as being a ‘starchitect’.

But while she was writing books about her country’s cultural heritage, a disaster set her on a new path. A huge earthquake killed 80,000 people and left 400,000 families displaced in northern Pakistan in 2005. “I felt I had to go and help,” says Lari. “I’d never done any disaster work, or any projects in the mountains. I had no workforce, I’d given up my practice. But I found that, if you do something beyond your usual comfort zone, then help will always come.”