Lara Camilla Pinho

Lara Camilla Pinho is an award-winning teacher and architect focused on sustainability and social impact. Through teaching, research and practice, Lara seeks to tackle real-world problems and current global issues using sustainable solutions that focus on vernacular construction, local resources and a more-than-human lens.

She studied at the Faculdade de Arquitectura - Universidade de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal) and École Nationale Superieure d’Architecture Paris-Belleville (Paris, France) and has lived in South Africa, Portugal, France and the Netherlands.

At UWA's School of Design, Lara is co-coordinator of the Social Impact Design focus area in the Master of Architecture program which focuses on design’s capacity for social change by offering a solid foundation in design that is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable.  Students are exposed to the complex and global nature of issues found equally in the realms of economic development, community improvement and disaster relief. Lara has established the unit ‘Empowering Communities through Design’ which seeks to establish a best practice framework for understanding the field and the worth of design that serves all species.

Lara’s research areas include the potential of design-research methods to add value to recycled plastics in collaboration with the University of Tasmania as well as investigating the potential of climate adaptive building materials.

Lara is also a co-founder and Principal Architect at blaanc borderless architecture and co-founded the non-profit humanitarian association Adobe for Women Association.