Radhya Kareem’s passion lies in understanding the connection between the conservation of built environments and natural ecologies. She holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute, where she conducted research into how preserving the past can help communities envision solutions for the future.  She focused this work on port cities like Karachi, her city of origin, and her current home, New York City.  Radhya also holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, which continues to shape her academic and professional journey. A recipient of the Aga Khan scholarship program, she is deeply interested in informal and tactical urbanism and participatory planning with the goal of developing new theories of a subaltern form of preservation. Her work merges built and intangible heritage, exploring architectures of necessity and jugaad as potential ways to re-negotiate identity and re-evaluate policy within urban contexts.

As a Ph.D. student at The New School, Radhya employs a multi-layered cartographic approach to understanding the cities where she has lived, identifying intersections and points of convergence across diverse experiences. Her aim is to celebrate diversity and promote pluralism in the built and lived environments. Outside of the studio, she can be found capturing the beauty of urban nature through photography and drawing. She finds inspiration in observing the returning birds and butterflies in industrial environments, as well as the changing seasons of foliage in the city.